Maharashtra, Haryana Wake Up To Decide

While most of us were covering our ears to ignore the morning alarm, Maharashtra and Haryana started voting at 7 am for the high-stakes assembly elections in both the states.

The elections are being seen as the first litmus test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effect on people after his election.

Around 10 crore people will vote in the election in two states to elect a new government.

According to Hindustan Times, the strength of the Maharashtra Assembly is 288. An electorate of about 8.25 crore will choose from 4,119 candidates in the fray, including 1,699 Independents. While Congress has fielded the largest number of 287 candidates, BJP 280 (including 23 of allies contesting on BJP symbol), Shiv Sena 282, NCP 278 and MNS 219.

In Haryana, about 1.63 crore voters, including 87.37 lakh women are eligible to vote at 16,357 polling stations to decide the fate of 1,351 candidates, including 109 women. Besides 90 each candidates of the BJP and Congress, BSP, CPI and CPI-M have put up 87, 14 and 17 candidates respectively.

In Maharashtra people will witness a four cornered election after BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP alliance broke up. The Congress-NCP alliance was ruling the state for past 15 years. While Uddhav Thackeray wishes to become the CM of the state after elections, BJP has been projected as the winning party in opinion polls. At the same time, NCP, Congress and Raj Thackeray’s MNS will fight for survival.

In Haryana, BJP is taking a lone fight against Congress which ruled the state past 10 years. The INLD campaign in Haryana saw dramatic turns. Former CM and party chief Om Prakash Chautala, who was out on bail in teacher’s recruitment scam on health grounds, has declared that he will run a government from Tihar Jail premises. He was imprisoned again on Saturday after the CBI approached the Delhi High Court saying that the INLD chief was violating the bail terms by addressing election meetings.

Although Congress high command Sonia Gandhi and ‘prodigal son’ Rahul Gandhi had campaigned in the states, the rallies had no sheen. The campaigns in both the states rested mostly on the shoulders of PM Modi, hence, becoming a ‘Modi vs Rest’ fight.

In the morning today, before the elections begun, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged everyone to vote in the decisive elections while Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda went on a badminton session to perhaps lessen the stress. Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan was splashed across the news papers as admitting that he headed a corrupt government all these years.

The votes will be counted and results will be out on Sunday.

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