The Maha Vikas Aghadi and the ruling Mahayuti will lock horns on Wednesday, as the people of Maharashtra will elect representatives to the state’s 288-strong assembly. A pitched electoral battle will also be witnessed in Jharkhand, where the JMM-led alliance will take on the BJP in the second phase of polling.
The Election Commission will also conduct by-polls in 15 assembly seats across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Uttarakhand. The counting of votes will take place on November 23.
Maharashtra Assembly elections
Maharashtra will witness an intense battle between the leaders of the Mahayuti alliance and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Leaders of both camps undertook extensive campaigns and made major pre-poll promises. Political observers stated that local factors would also have a significant role in deciding the electoral outcome.
This is the first assembly election since the Shiv Sena and NCP split into rival factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar respectively.
Voting will begin at 7 am and will end at 6 pm. A total of 4,136 candidates are in the fray which includes 2,086 independent contenders. The state has about 9.70 crore voters.
The BJP is contesting in 149 seats, Shiv Sena 81, and NCP 59 constituencies. The Congress has fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95, and NCP (SP) has fielded 86 candidates. BSP is contesting in 237 seats.
Key candidates in the fray include CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister and BJP candidate Devendra Fadanvis, Ajit Pawar, Aaditya Thackeray, Milind Deora and Nana Patole among many others.
Jharkhand Assembly polls
The INDIA bloc and the NDA will lock horns as Jharkhand gears up for polling in 38 of the total 81 assembly seats on Wednesday.
This phase will decide the electoral fate of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren (both JMM), and Leader of Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri (BJP) besides more than 500 other candidates.
Polling is scheduled to begin at 7 am in 14,218 polling stations and will continue till 5 pm barring 31 booths where it will end at 4 pm.
A total of 1.23 crore voters including 60.79 lakh women and 147 third gender voters are eligible to vote on Wednesday. Altogether 528 candidates – 472 men, 55 women and a third gender person – are in the fray.
In the 2019 assembly elections, the contest was close, with the JMM winning 30 seats and the BJP securing 25, down from 37 in 2014. The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won a comfortable majority with 47 seats.
Bypolls in UP, Kerala, Punjab and Uttarakhand
Bypolls in 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand will be held on Wednesday.
In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with a maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad.
This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc as well as the NDA in the politically significant state after the Lok Sabha elections.
In Punjab, by-polls will be held in four assembly seats – Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala.
Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
Article source: hindustantimes.com
