Maharashtra, Haryana Election: Who will rule the roost

New Delhi, Oct 20: Voting for Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly Election 2019 will take place in a single phase today. The polling is scheduled to begin at 7 am at all polling booths and Counting of votes will take place on October 24 and the results will be out on the same day. The terms of both the states are due to expire on 2 and 9 November 2019 respectively. Both states, currently ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance are set to vote in a fresh government.

The Bypolls for two Lok Sabha and 51 Assembly constituencies across 17 states and one Union Territory will also be held tomorrow.

Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections on October 21 come five months after Lok Sabha elections, which saw the BJP's National Democratic Alliance ride the Modi wave into power.

Haryana:

The key parties in the fray are the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and Indian National Lok Dal. As many 1,169 candidates including 104 Women are are in the fray for 90 seats out of which 17 are reserved.

Nearly 1.83 crore voters are eligible to exercise their right to franchise. Out of them, around 99 lakh are men while 85 lakh are women. Voting will be held in 16,357 Polling Stations across the state. Hansi constituency in Hisar district is having the highest number of candidates - 25 in the fray.

Both the ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress are contesting in 90 seats while Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is contesting in 81 seats in alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Other parties in the running are the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Aam Aadmi Party and Jannayak Janta Party. In the recently held Lok Sabha elections 2019, BJP had won all the 10 parliamentary constituencies garnering 58.21 % of votes.

In the 2014 Assembly polls in Haryana, the BJP won 47 seats and formed the government in the state for the first time. The INLD)came second at 19 while the Congress managed just 15 seats. Two seats went to the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), and one each to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independents were also elected.

Maharashtra:

In Maharashtra, it is a battle of two alliances - Maha-Yuti (Grand Alliance) including majorly the BJP and Shiv Sena, on one hand, and the Maha-Aghadi camp including Congress and NCP mainly, on the other. This is the first time that someone from the Thackeray family is contesting an election -- Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's son Aaditya Thackeray.

Several smaller parties have allied themselves with either of these two groups. Maha-Yuti (Grand Alliance), the ruling combine, also includes Republican Party of India (A), Shiv Sangram, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and Rayat Kranti Sanghatana. Similarly, the Peasants and Workers Party, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, People's Republican Party and the Samajwadi Party are with the Maha-Aghadi camp. In the recently held Lok Sabha elections 2019, BJP Shiv Sena combine had won 41 parliamentary constituencies out of 48 garnering 51.3 % of votes.

Nearly 8.9 crore voters will cast their votes for electing their representatives for 288 seats of the state Assembly out of which 53 are reserved seats. Out of these voters, more than 4.5 crores are men and around 4 crores are women. Altogether 3,237 candidates including 235 women are contesting in the elections. Voting will be held in 96,661 Polling Stations set up by the Election Commission of India across the state. The Nanded South seat in Marathwada region has the most number of candidates (38) in the fray.

Besides this, By-polls for two Lok Sabha constituencies -Samastipur in Bihar and Satara in Maharashtra and 51 Assembly seats across 17 states and one Union Territory, including 11 in UP and 6 in Gujarat, will also be held tomorrow. The results will be declared on Thursday, the 24th of October.