Campaigning for the Maharashtra Assembly elections to be held on November 20 and the second phase of Jharkhand elections ended today. Voting for 43 seats in the first phase in Jharkhand took place on November 13. Voting for 288 seats in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20. The election results of both the states will come on November 23. A total of 4,136 candidates are in the fray for 288 seats in Maharashtra, including 2,086 independent contenders. However, this time, the political landscape is more fragmented with the separation of Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party over the past two years.
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Of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 149 candidates, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has fielded 81 candidates and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar-led NCP has fielded 59 candidates. In the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, Congress has fielded 101 candidates, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has 95 candidates and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) has 86 candidates. The election campaign saw prominent leaders like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several Union ministers campaigning across the state to garner votes for their candidates.
Mahayuti is counting on its popular schemes for women like Majhi Ladki Bahin to help it retain power. The BJP’s use of slogans like “batenge to katenge” and “ek hai to safe hai” prompted opposition parties to accuse Mahayuti of polarizing voters on religious lines. The MVA alliance countered the rhetoric of the ruling alliance by focusing on issues such as caste-based census, social justice and protecting the Constitution. The opposition aimed to appeal to voters who felt neglected by the government.
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In the second phase in Jharkhand, voting will be held on 38 seats on November 20. Majority of the seats in the second phase are located in Santhal and Koylanchal areas. In this phase also, the fate of many veterans is going to be at stake. The reputation of current Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Speaker Rabindranath Mahato, former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, former Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahato, current ministers Irfan Ansari, Hafeezul Hasan, Deepika Pandey Singh, Baby Devi is at stake. A total of 528 candidates are in the fray in the second phase. In the first phase on November 13, 66.65 percent people had participated on 43 seats.
