Reportedly fresh from its Lok Sabha
victory, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will seek to retain its bastions as
Maharashtra and Haryana vote today, while the Opposition hopes to turn the tide
by taking advantage of anti-incumbency. Meanwhile by-polls will also be held to
51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states.
Perhaps 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. Furthermore 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. Meanwhile 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.
Reports added polling will be held from 7am to 6pm, 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 mobilized in Haryana. Apparently in
Haryana, the Congress is hoping to make a comeback following a change in guard
in the state, while the BJP led by Chief Minister manohar lal khattar has set a
target of winning 75 seats out of 90 in which 1,169 candidates of various
political outfits are contesting and the counting of votes will be on October
24.