Mumbai: Maharashtra, the most sought after state for major parties, is witnessing a fierce political battle. With more than 9.6 crore voters going to cast their votes today, 4,136 candidates – 2,050 from various parties and 2,086 independents – are vying to make it to the 288-member assembly.
The state witnessed an intense battle in 1995 when the Shiv Sena – under Balasaheb Thackeray – and the BJP were eager to unseat the Sharad Pawar-led Congress government. Pawar was not just opposed by the saffron combine, but a group of his own party colleagues led by revenue minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and backed by SB Chavan, VN Gadgil, AR Antulay and Sudhakarrao Naik. The closely fought election saw the Congress losing to the SS-BJP combine and a whopping 44 independents – mostly from the Grand Old Party – making it to the assembly.
But the 2024 election programme is much more than that because almost all the major players grouped under the Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi have fielded candidates against their respective allies.
The BJP has the highest number of rebels (43), followed by the Congress (32), the NCP (SP) (17), the Shiv Sena (UBT) (16), the NCP (Ajit Pawar) (14) and the Shiv Sena (Shinde) (10).
The battle lines are drawn with the BJP contesting 149 seats, the Congress 101, the Sena (UBT) 95, the NCP (SP) 86, the Shiv Sena 81 and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) 59.
In some of the constituencies the battle is more fierce as three to four major candidates representing allies either from the Mahayuti or the MVA will take on each other. The contest is so bitter that the poll symbol of trumpet has been allocated to 164 candidates despite an objection raised by the NCP (SP), whose symbol is ‘man playing turah’.
The BJP roped in its top-line leadership for canvassing, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi with 10 rallies and Home Minister Amit Shah with 16
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his counterparts from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP chief JP Nadda have also addressed public meetings. According to party leader Pankaja Munde, almost 90,000 party workers worked overtime to ensure maximum wins.
From the government side, Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde addressed approximately 75 rallies, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis 64 and Ajit Pawar 56.
For the MVA, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed seven meetings and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi three. They were assisted by AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Telangana, and the deputy CM of Karnataka.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar addressed as many as 63 rallies followed by Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray (60).
