Voting Underway for Key Assembly Seats in Maharashtra and Jharkhand: High-Stakes Elections and By-Elections

Polling has begun today for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and the remaining 38 seats in Jharkhand, with both states gearing up for a high-stakes electoral battle. Voting will continue until 5 pm today. The second phase of polling in Jharkhand follows the first phase held on November 13, while in Maharashtra, voting is taking place in a single phase for all 288 seats.

In Maharashtra, the election is primarily a contest between the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Mahavikas Aghadi. The Mahayuti includes the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, with BJP contesting 149 seats, Shiv Sena 81 seats, and NCP 59 seats. The opposition Mahavikas Aghadi, consisting of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress, is contesting 282 seats.

Key contests in Maharashtra include the Nagpur South West seat, where BJP’s Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis is vying for re-election against Congress’s Prafulla Gudde. Fadnavis is aiming for a fourth consecutive term. Another significant battle is between Ajit Pawar and Yugendra Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s grandson, in Baramati. Worli City in Mumbai is also a high-profile seat, where former MP Aditya Thackeray faces off against Milind Dewara from Shinde Sena and Sandeep Deshpande from MNS.

A notable feature of the election this year is the rise in independent and rebel candidates, with over 150 rebel candidates contesting against official Mahayuti and MVA candidates. Maharashtra has a total electorate of 9.7 crores, with over 4,100 candidates contesting across 288 seats.

Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the contest is between the BJP-led NDA and the INDIA alliance, with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren, taking center stage in the opposition alliance. The second phase of polling today will decide the fate of 528 candidates across 38 constituencies, including notable figures like Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren, and BJP leader Amar Kumar Bowri. Among the 38 constituencies, Santal Pargana, which includes six districts, is witnessing heightened attention, with the NDA alleging large-scale infiltration during the JMM-led government. Out of the 38 seats, 17 are seeing direct competition between the BJP and JMM.

In addition to the assembly elections, by-elections for 15 seats in five states are also being held today. These include 9 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 4 in Punjab, 1 in Kerala, and 1 in Uttarakhand. In Maharashtra, a by-election is underway for the Nanded Lok Sabha seat, following the death of Congress MP Vasantha Rao Chavan.

With such high-profile contests and crucial outcomes on the line, today’s elections are being closely watched as they could alter the political landscape of both states.