Mumbai: The battle for Maharashtra's throne appears poised for a close finish with Congress-NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) leading in 139 seats, followed by Shiv Sena-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in 115 seats and others in 30 as the initial trends for the 288-member State Assembly trickled in.

Though the ruling combination of Congress-NCP appeared to have an edge by establishing a lead in 139 seats, the saffron combine was leading in 112 assembly constituencies.

But initial trends indicated that independents and rebels, which are leading in almost 30 seats, will have a crucial role to play in the formation of the next Government.

Even the Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde admitted that from the initial trends he would like to wait till the "last round of counting". He said that the ruling alliance was "in touch" of independents.

Prominent among those leading include Shinde (Solapur south), Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil (Malshiras), Subhash Desai (Sena), Gopinath Munde (BJP) and Chhagan Bhujbal (Yeola).

Those trailing include speaker Arun Gujrathi (Chopda), Sureshdada Jain (Jalgaon), Anees Ahmed (Nagpur-East) and Digvijay Khanvilkar (Karveer).