Voting began for all 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra and 38 out of 81 seats in seats in Jharkhand at 7 am on Wednesday.

Bye-polls in the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra and 15 Assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand were also held on Wednesday.

The counting of votes in all states will take place on November 23.

As of 5 pm, Maharashtra had recorded a voter turnout of 58.22% and Jharkhand 67.59%. The turnout in the Nanded bye-poll was 53.78%.

Maharashtra

The ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, is competing against the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.

The Opposition alliance comprises the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. They are also part of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level.

Within the Mahayuti, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded 149 candidates, the Shinde Sena is contesting 81 seats and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party has named 59 candidates.

On the other hand, the Congress has fielded 101 candidates, the Thackeray Sena has named 95 and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party is contesting 86 seats.

The Bahujan Samaj Party is contesting 237 and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen 17 seats.

In Baramati, Ajit Pawar is contesting against his nephew Yugendra Pawar from the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.

Another key contest is the Nagpur South West, where Deputy Chief Minister and BJP’s Maharashtra face Devendra Fadnavis is in a tough battle against Congress candidate Prafful Gudadhe.

Shinde is contesting from the Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat against the Thackeray Sena’s Anand Dighe.

According to the Election Commission, Maharashtra has 9.7 crore registered voters, including 5 crore men, 4.69 crore women, and 6,101 transgender voters.

The term of the Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra will end on November 26.

In the 2019 Maharashtra polls, the BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member Assembly. The undivided Shiv Sena, its ally at the time, won 56 seats.

The united Nationalist Congress Party won 54 seats while its ally, the Congress, won 44 seats.

Jharkhand

In Jharkhand, polling is being held for the remaining 38 seats, as voters in 43 constituencies cast their ballots in the first phase on November 13.

A turnout of 64.86% was registered in the first phase.

In the second phase, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is contesting the polls from 20 seats, while the Congress has fielded 13 candidates, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) four and the Rashtriya Janata Dal two candidates.

The parties, part of the INDIA bloc at the national level, are contesting the Assembly elections in alliance.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) have decided to fight a friendly contest in the Dhanwar Assembly seat, while the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal will have a friendly fight in Chattarpur and Bishrampur constituencies.

On the other hand, the BJP is contesting 32 seats and its ally, the All Jharkhand Students’ Union Party, on six seats.

Among the prominent candidates in the fray is Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who is fighting the polls from the Barhait constituency against the BJP’s Gamaliel Hembrom.

Soren’s wife, Kalpana Soren, is contesting against BJP candidate Muniya Devi in Gandey.

BJP’s state unit president Babulal Marandi is contesting the polls from the Dhanwar seat, Leader of Opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly Amar Kumar Bauri from Chandankiyari, while Sita Soren, the daughter-in-law of political heavyweight Shibu Soren, is fighting from Jamtara against Congress’s Irfan Ansari.

Jharkhand has about 1.23 crore voters on the electoral roll for the second phase.

In the 2019 Jharkhand polls, the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 30 seats in the 81-member Assembly. Its ally, the Congress, won 16 seats. Another ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, had clinched one seat.

Hemant Soren became the chief minister of the coalition government.

The BJP, which was in power in the state between 2014 and 2019, won 25 seats.

Bye-polls

Voting for the bye-polls in 15 Assembly across constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand also began at 7 am.

In Uttar Pradesh, polling is being held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are contesting in these seats.

Voting also began for the Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala Assembly constituencies in Punjab. The bye-polls were necessitated after the MLAs representing these seats were elected to the Lok Sabha in the general elections held earlier this year.

Polling is also being held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.

In Palakkad, the bye-poll is being held after Congress MLA Shafi Parambil got elected to the Lok Sabha from the Vadakara constituency.

The Kedarnath seat became vacant following the death of sitting BJP MLA Shailarani Rawat in July.

In Maharashtra, the bye-poll for the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency is being conducted due to the death of Congress MP Vasantrao Chavan soon after the general elections.

Suspected Maoists torch trucks in Jharkhand

Five trucks were set on fire by suspected Maoists hours before polling for the second phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections on Wednesday, reported PTI.

The incident took place in the Laat forest under the jurisdiction of Herhanj Police Station around 1.30 am, the newspaper quoted an unnamed police officer as saying. The trucks were deployed to transport coal at the Tubed Coal Mine in Latehar.

“The trucks were returning after dumping coal when they were set on fire by members of the banned Jharkhand Prastuti Committee, a splinter group of Maoists,” said Latehar Superintendent of Police Kumar Gaurav. “An investigation has been initiated.”

The suspected Maoists also left a pamphlet threatening to stop the work at the mine until talks were held with the outfit, Gaurav said.

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