Battle royale for Haryana and Maharashtra
15 Oct 2014 5:47 AM IST
In the current round of polls, the alliance partners in the Lok Sabha polls have become rivals and are taking on each other with full aggression. Maharashtra will witness the first election when all major parties such as BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP are contesting alone after political formulations – Shiv Sena-BJP and Cong-NCP – crumbled. Congress and NCP had ruled the state for 15 continuous years from 1999.
Riding on the Modi wave, BJP in Haryana too has junked its allies and is pushing for a majority on its own to dislodge Congress that has been ruling the state for the last 10 years. The polling will begin at 7 am and conclude at 6 pm on Wednesday. The counting of votes will be held on 19 October.
Political pundits are now projecting BJP in better position after Dera Sacha Sauda sect announced unconditional support to the saffron party. The sect led by mercurial preacher Ram Rahim Singh claims to have enough followers to make BJP victorious in the state. BJP cosied to the Sirsa-based Dera to woo non-Jat voters as it does not appear to have made much inroads into the Jat-dominated districts.
For the polls, PM Modi addressed 38 rallies in a period of 10 days in both the states in a campaign that has virtually turned into Modi versus the rest. Modi addressed 27 rallies, rare for a prime minister in an assembly election, in Maharashtra in the absence of a BJP leader with state-wide appeal.
The death of union minister Gopinath Munde in a car crash soon after Lok Sabha polls has deprived BJP of a popular face in the elections. His daughter Pankaja, contesting from Parli, is seen as the rising star in state politics. The Congress campaign in both the states was spearheaded by party president Sonia Gandhi while for the NCP it was Sharad Pawar and for Shiv Sena it was father-son combination of Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya.
Maharashtra will witness a five-cornered contest for the 288-member house. An electorate of about 8.25 crore can choose from 4,119 candidates in the fray, including 1,699 Independents. While Congress has fielded 287 candidates, the largest number in the state, BJP has put up 280, Shiv Sena 282, NCP 278 and MNS 219.
Riding on the Modi wave, BJP in Haryana too has junked its allies and is pushing for a majority on its own to dislodge Congress that has been ruling the state for the last 10 years. The polling will begin at 7 am and conclude at 6 pm on Wednesday. The counting of votes will be held on 19 October.
Political pundits are now projecting BJP in better position after Dera Sacha Sauda sect announced unconditional support to the saffron party. The sect led by mercurial preacher Ram Rahim Singh claims to have enough followers to make BJP victorious in the state. BJP cosied to the Sirsa-based Dera to woo non-Jat voters as it does not appear to have made much inroads into the Jat-dominated districts.
For the polls, PM Modi addressed 38 rallies in a period of 10 days in both the states in a campaign that has virtually turned into Modi versus the rest. Modi addressed 27 rallies, rare for a prime minister in an assembly election, in Maharashtra in the absence of a BJP leader with state-wide appeal.
The death of union minister Gopinath Munde in a car crash soon after Lok Sabha polls has deprived BJP of a popular face in the elections. His daughter Pankaja, contesting from Parli, is seen as the rising star in state politics. The Congress campaign in both the states was spearheaded by party president Sonia Gandhi while for the NCP it was Sharad Pawar and for Shiv Sena it was father-son combination of Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya.
Maharashtra will witness a five-cornered contest for the 288-member house. An electorate of about 8.25 crore can choose from 4,119 candidates in the fray, including 1,699 Independents. While Congress has fielded 287 candidates, the largest number in the state, BJP has put up 280, Shiv Sena 282, NCP 278 and MNS 219.
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