The Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced the schedules for the much-awaited assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Jharkhand will vote in two rounds, on November 13 and then on November 20 along with Maharashtra which will have single-phase polling.
The counting of votes for both states will take place on November 23, the poll panel said.
Dates were also announced for some Lok Sabha bypolls, including Kerala’s Wayanad seat vacated by Rahul Gandhi. The Congress leader gave up the seat because he also won the family bastion of Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli in the April-June general elections. His sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is expected to make her electoral debut from Wayanad.
The term of the Maharashtra legislative assembly, with a total of 288 seats, ends on November 26. With the announcement of election dates, the model code of conduct has come into place in the state.
Some opposition parties in Maharashtra had sought a multi-phase election in the state. However, as the ECI announced a single-phase poll, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said, “We appeal EC to not to let Maharashtra election to become like Haryana election…money game might take place…if Election Commission considers themselves unbiased, we don’t though, they will have to take care of all these things…EVM is not foolproof…no matter what govt will change. This unconstitutional govt that was formed with the support of PM Modi, Amit Shah and the Supreme Court, will change…”
Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi said, “The (state) govt has been given enough time to deal with their business and to make election announcements as well and dates have been announced at the last moment. MVA is fully prepared and BJP knows that they won’t get anything in Maharashtra and MVA is going to form govt with a huge majority…”
In Jharkhand, state Congress president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh welcomed the dates announced by the ECI. “We are fully prepared for the elections…People of Jharkhand have made up their minds and they will once again choose the ally government here,” he told news agency ANI.
BJP MP Brijmohan Agrawal also spoke to the agency. “People of the country have decided to form double-engine government in all states. The vision of ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’, if somebody can fulfil it, it is only possible under the leadership of PM Modi and that’s why people crushed the dreams of Congress in Haryana, people of Jharkhand will do the same. In Maharashtra, people will form the BJP government once again,” he said.
Maharashtra
In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the (then undivided) Shiv Sena dominated, winning 161 of 288 seats. However, the alliance fell apart over sharing of power and the Sena joined hands with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress to form the government.
However, in 2023, rebellions by Sena’s Eknath Shinde, who is now Maharashtra chief minister, and NCP’s Ajit Pawar, now his deputy, forced then CM Uddhav Thackeray to step down and his coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi government to collapse.
While the April-June general elections this year saw Narendra Modi become a three-time Prime Minister, the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra won just 17 of the 48 parliamentary seats, falling behind the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Jharkhand
In the 2019 assembly elections, chief minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, won 47 of the state’s 82 seats.
Earlier this year, Hemant Soren resigned as CM ahead of his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on corruption charges. He was briefly replaced by Champai Soren, a veteran politician and close aide of party patriarch Shibu Soren. But after Hemant returned to the CM’s chair following his release on bail, Champai rebelled and later quit to join the BJP.
In the April-June Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won eight seats in the state from a 44.6% vote share and its ally AJSU won one seat from a 2.62% vote share. The INDIA bloc combined won just five seats – three by the JMM and two by the Congress with vote shares of 14.6% and 19.19%, respectively.
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