PMaharashtra-Jharkhand Poll: Voting for Maharashtra’s 288-seat assembly and Jharkhand’s 39 seat today
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar are pulling out all stops to secure votes for their respective parties.
Polling for Maharashtra’s 288-seat assembly is being held today. The ruling Mahayuti alliance is striving to retain power, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) aims for a strong comeback. Voting will take place from 7 AM to 6 PM, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 23.
During the campaign, prominent leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and several central ministers campaigned vigorously for their parties.
The Mahayuti alliance includes the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and NCP led by Ajit Pawar. The coalition is banking on popular schemes like “Mazi Ladki Bahin” (My Dear Sister) to garner support. BJP’s campaign prominently featured slogans like “Bantenge Toh Katenge” (Divided We Fall) and “Ek Hai Toh Safe Hai” (United We Are Safe), which the opposition criticized as attempts to polarize voters along religious lines.
The opposition MVA (Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP) focused on issues such as social justice, caste-based census, and protecting the Constitution to counter the ruling alliance’s narrative.
Key Highlights:
- BJP is contesting 149 seats, Shinde-led Shiv Sena on 81 seats, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP on 59 seats.
- MVA partners Congress, Uddhav-led Shiv Sena, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP are contesting 101, 95, and 86 seats respectively.
- A total of 4,136 candidates are contesting, a 28% increase compared to 2019.
- Maharashtra has 9.7 crore voters, including 5 crore men, 4.7 crore women, and 6,101 transgender voters.
The Election Commission has set up over 1 lakh polling booths, with 6 lakh state employees deployed on election duty. Enforcement agencies have seized ₹252.42 crore worth of cash, liquor, drugs, and precious metals since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect.
Final Phase of Polling in Jharkhand Today:
Simultaneously, polling is taking place in 38 out of 81 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand during the second and final phase of elections. The fate of 528 candidates, including Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren, and BJP leader Amar Kumar Bauri, will be decided today.
The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance is seeking to retain power based on its welfare schemes, while the BJP has focused on issues such as Hindutva, infiltration from Bangladesh, and alleged corruption in the current government.
Jharkhand’s 1.23 crore eligible voters, including 60.79 lakh women, will cast their votes across 14,218 polling stations from 7 AM to 5 PM.
The Chief Electoral Officer stated that ₹200 crore worth of cash and illegal materials have been seized since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect. Of the 38 constituencies, eight are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, and three are reserved for Scheduled Castes.
