Voting will be held on 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 38 assembly seats in Jharkhand in the second phase tomorrow i.e. on Wednesday. In Maharashtra it is being done in one phase while in Jharkhand it is being done in two phases. Voting for the first phase in Jharkhand was held on 13 November. The election fight in Maharashtra is mainly between two alliances. On one side there is the Mahayuti alliance which is in power. On the other hand, there is Mahavikas Aghadi which is the role of opposition. At the same time, in Jharkhand there is BJP led NDA on one side and India alliance on the other side. Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is leading the alliance in the state. The fate of many veterans is at stake in both the states.
Talking about the grand alliance in Maharashtra, it has BJP, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar faction's NCP. BJP is contesting on 149 seats, while ally Shiv Sena is contesting on 81 seats and Ajit faction's NCP is contesting on 59 seats. At the same time, in the opposition alliance Mahavikas Aghadi, Congress is contesting on 101 seats, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena is contesting on 95 seats and Sharad Pawar faction's NCP is contesting on 86 seats. Out of 288 seats in Maharashtra, 29 are reserved for SC, 25 for ST. A total of 4140 candidates are in the fray for these 288 seats.
Many famous faces are also contesting in Maharashtra elections. In this, BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis is in the fray from Nagpur South West seat. Fadnavis is contesting against Congress party's Prafulla Guddhe. Fadnavis is eyeing securing his stronghold for the fourth consecutive time.
At the same time, there is a fight between Pawar vs Pawar in Baramati. Here on one hand Ajit Pawar is in the fray while on the other hand Sharad Pawar's grandson Yugendra Pawar is challenging him. Yugendra Pawar is in the election field for the first time and Sharad Pawar has an upper hand on him.
The contest on Vandre East seat is even more interesting. Here Zeeshan Siddiqui and Varun Sardesai are face to face. Zeeshan Siddiqui has the support of youth and Muslims. His competition is Uddhav Thackeray's nephew Varun Sardesai. He has been with Uddhav Thackeray Sena since the split in Shiv Sena in the year 2022. He has a significant reach in the traditional votes of Shiv Sena in Vandre East.
Worli City of Mumbai is also one of the high profile seats. Here there is a contest between Shinde Sena's Milind Deora, Shiv Sena-UBT's Aditya Thackeray and MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande. Milind Deora is a former MP from South Mumbai. Aditya Thackeray contested elections for the first time in 2019. In this election he had won a big victory by 89,248 votes.
The contest on Kopri-Pachpakhadi assembly seat of Thane is also quite hi-fi. Here the reputation of CM Eknath Shinde is at stake. In front of Shinde is Kedar Dighe, nephew of his guru Anand Dighe. Shinde often describes Anand Dighe as his political guru. He also financed a film based on Dighe's life.
Compared to the state assembly elections of 2019, this time the number of candidates has increased by 28 percent. This year 4136 candidates are contesting the elections, whereas in 2019 this number was 3239. Among these candidates, 2086 are independents. Rebel candidates are in the fray in more than 150 constituencies. These rebel candidates are contesting against the official candidates of Mahayuti and MVA.
Now if we talk about Jharkhand, out of the 38 seats where voting will be held in the last phase, eight are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and three for Scheduled Castes. A total of 1.23 crore voters, including 60.79 lakh women and 147 third gender voters, will exercise their franchise in the second phase. A total of 528 candidates are in the fray in this phase, of which 472 are men, 55 are women and one belongs to the third gender.
Out of the 38 seats for which elections are to be held in Jharkhand, 18 seats fall in the Santhal Pargana region, which includes 6 districts. During the election campaign, the NDA alleged that large-scale infiltration had taken place in Santhal Parganas during the five-year tenure of the JMM-led government.
The second phase of elections will decide the electoral fate of 528 candidates, including Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate and Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren and opposition leader and BJP candidate Amar Kumar Bauri. There is a direct contest between BJP and JMM on 17 out of 38 seats in the second phase.
The 38 seats in Jharkhand where voting will take place include Baghmara, Bagodar, Barhet, Bermo, Bokaro, Borio, Chandankyari, Deoghar, Dhanbad, Dhanwar, Dumka, Dumri, Gandey, Giridih, Godda, Gomia, Jama, Jamtara, Jamua, Jarmundi, Jharia. , Khijri, Littipara, Madhupur, Mahagama, Maheshpur, Mandu, Nala, Nirsa, Pakur, Poreyahat, Rajmahal, Ramgarh, Sharat, Shikaripada, Silli, Sindri and Tundi seats are included.
The political fate of many senior leaders is at stake in the second phase of elections in Jharkhand. This includes leaders like Chief Minister Hemant Soren, former minister Babulal Marandi, Sita Soren, Kalpana Soren, Sudesh Mahato. Hemant Soren is contesting from Barhet seat while Marandi is contesting from Dhanwar seat. Sita Soren is contesting from Jamtara seat and Kalpana Soren is contesting from Gande seat.
Apart from this, votes will also be cast today for the by-elections being held on 15 assembly seats in 5 states. Out of these 15 seats, 13 seats have become vacant after the MLAs became MPs while one seat has become vacant after the death of a leader and one seat has become vacant after a leader went to jail. Out of these 15 seats, 9 are from Uttar Pradesh where votes will be cast. Talking about 15 seats, 9 from Uttar Pradesh, 1 from Uttarakhand, 4 from Punjab and 1 from Kerala are included.
By-elections are also being held in Nanded Lok Sabha seat of Maharashtra. This seat has become vacant after the death of Congress MP Vasantrao Chavan. Vasantrao Chavan died just a few weeks after the completion of the Lok Sabha elections. After this the Election Commission decided to hold by-elections on this seat. Congress party has declared Ravindra Chavan, son of Vasantrao Chavan, as its candidate for the by-election, while BJP has given ticket to Dr. Santuk Humbarde. The results of by-elections along with the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand will also be released on November 23.
