Bypolls in 51 Assembly, 2 LS seats in 18 States
Polling will be held on Monday in all 288 Assembly constituencies of Maharashtra and the 90 Assembly seats of Haryana as the ruling BJP, a good five-months after its win in the Lok Sabha elections, is looking for a second consecutive terms in both the States.
While abrogation of Article 370 and anti-Pakistan rant has been the main poll planks of the BJP, the Opposition claimed that economic slowdown, unemployment and general anti-incumbency could work in their favour.
Bypolls will also be held to 51 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 States. Eleven of these bypolls would be in Uttar Pradesh where poll results would be seen as a litmus test for the Yogi Adityanath Government which has completed 30 months in office.
BJP’s incumbent Chief Minister in Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana are seeking second term, but the campaign face for the ruling BJP is Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya Thackeray is making his debut in the electoral politics by contesting Assembly poll from Worli in Mumbai. The 29-year-old Thackeray is the first in the family to take plunge in electoral politics.
Counting of votes for both the Assembly polls and bypolls will be held on October 24.
In Maharashtra, where the ‘Mahayuti’ alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the ‘Maha-agadhi’ led by the Congress and the NCP, a total of 8,98,39,600 people, including 4,28,43,635 women, are eligible to vote.
As many as 3,237 candidates, including 235 women, are contesting in 288 seats and 96,661 polling booths are in place with 6.5 lakh staff for the voting exercise.
The ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling JJP for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana which has over 1.83 crore voters, including 85 lakh women and 252 transgenders, while 19,578 polling stations have been set up.
Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. Tight security arrangements have been made with deployment of more than three lakh personnel from state police and central forces in Maharashtra, while over 75,000 security personnel have been mobilised in Haryana.
The high-voltage electioneering by the BJP saw participation of a galaxy of leaders led Modi and his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, as it continued to aggressively raise the nationalism plank by focusing on scrapping of Article 370 provisions on special status to Jammu and Kashmir and targeted the opposition on national security and corruption.
The opposition tried to corner the BJP governments at the Centre and in the states on the handling of the economy with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blaming the ruling party for the economic slowdown and unemployment and highlighting issues like “failure” of demonetisation and GST rollout.
The BJP, which is seeking a second straight term under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, is contesting 164 seats, which include candidates of smaller allies contesting on its lotus symbol, while Sena has fielded candidates on 126 seats.
On the other hand, the Congress has fielded 147 candidates and the ally NCP 121.
Among other parties, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by Raj Thackeray, has fielded 101 candidates, the CPI 16, the CPM 8. The BSP has fielded candidates in 262 constituencies. A total of 1400 Independents are also in the poll arena.
The opposition campaign was, however, lacklusture as both the Congress and the NCP were plagued by infighting and desertions in the run-up to the polls.
The high-pitch campaign by the BJP has prompted its taciturn ally Shiv Sena to ask if Chief Minister thought there was no opposition in the state poll why BJP had deployed its all big-wigs in the campaign trail.
The campaign in Maharashtra was marked by personal attacks and sharp exchange of barbs between the chief minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who hit the hustings at the age of 79 and addressed a number of rallies. However, the Congress and NCP failed to hold even a single joint rally.
While Modi addressed nine rallies across the state, Rahul Gandhi spoke at six public meetings.
The campaign also saw an undertone of jostling for supremacy between the BJP and the Sena, which had fought the last assembly elections separately, winning 122 and 63 seats respectively. The Congress had bagged 42 and the NCP 41 seats.
In the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-Sena alliance won 41 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, while the Congress won one and NCP four seats.
Prominent candidates in the fray are Chief Minister Fadnavis and his predecessors from Congress, Ashok Chavan, who is in fray from Bhokar in Nanded district, and Prithviraj Chavan seeking re-election from Karad South in Satara district.
In Haryana, the Congress is hoping to make a comeback following a change in guard in the state, while the BJP led by Khattar has set a target of winning 75 seats out of 90 in which 1,169 candidates of various political outfits are contesting. Currently, the BJP has 48 members in state assembly.
The Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), a breakaway faction of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), is also hoping for an improvement in its prospects following the Lok Sabha debacle.
The party had emerged on the scene following a feud in the Chautala clan in Decamber last year.
The BSP, AAP, INLD-SAD combine, Swaraj India and the Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP) have thrown their hat into the ring, though none of them is fighting on all 90 seats.
Prominent amongst those in the contest are Chief Minister Khattar (Karnal), former chief minister and Congress Legislative Party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), Randeep Singh Surjewala (Kaithal), Kiran Choudhary (Tosham) and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Adampur) and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan).
The BJP has fielded three sportspersons -- Babita Phogat (Dadri), Yogeshwar Dutt (Baroda in Sonipat) and Sandeep Singh (Pehowa) -- besides TikTok star Sonali Phogat (Adampur).
In Haryana, among the few women in the fray Latika Sharma of the BJP is well poised to retain her seat from Kalka. Latika practiced law in Panchkula courts before she got into politics and won from Kalka in 2014 assembly polls. She counts of a host of developmental works , especially road and bridge construction, that has help in transforming the face of the small town that is gateway to Himachal Pradesh..
While Prime Minister Modi addressed seven rallies in the state, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed two election meetings.
