After months of relentless campaigning that saw a war of narratives by various political parties, Maharashtra and Jharkhand are set to vote in crucial Assembly elections today.
In the second and final phase of elections, Jharkhand is geared up for polling in 38 of the total 81 assembly seats, when the electoral fate of 528 candidates, including Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren both (both JMM) and Leader of Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri (BJP) will be decided.
The ruling JMM-led INDIA bloc and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance are engaged in a fierce battle in the elections in the state, the first phase of which was held on November 13.
The JMM-led coalition is seeking to retain power riding on its welfare schemes, while the saffron party has raised the election pitch raising the issues of Hindutva, infiltration from Bangladesh and corruption of the current dispensation.
The NDA has been alleging during electioneering that large-scale infiltration took place in Santhal Pargana during the past five years of the JMM-led regime.
Besides CM Soren and his wife, prominent among the candidates include state BJP president and ex-CM Babulal Marandi, Assembly Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahto (JMM) and BJP ally AJSU Party chief Sudesh Mahto.
Top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP present JP Nadda and chief ministers of several states addressed a number of rallies where they attacked the JMM-led coalition over corruption and infiltration.
INDIA bloc leaders including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and his wife and legislator Kalpana Soren campaigned extensively, promising welfare schemes and accusing the BJP-led Centre of "unleashing" ED and CBI against the rival parties.
There are 28 reserved seats for ST candidates and nine for SC contestants. Of the SC seats, JMM won 2, BJP 6 and RJD 1 in the 2019 polls.
In ST reserved seats, JMM was victorious in 19, Congress in 6, BJP 2 and JVM(P) 1.
This time, as far as NDA is concerned, BJP has fielded candidates in 68 seats while allies AJSU Party in 10, JD(U) in two and Lok Janshakti (Ram Vilas) in one.
Of the INDIA bloc, JMM has fielded candidates in 43 seats, Congress 30, RJD 6 and CPI(ML) 4 with friendly fights on some seats.
In the 2019 assembly elections, the contest was close, with the JMM winning 30 seats and the BJP securing 25, down from 37 in 2014.
The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won a comfortable majority with 47 seats.
Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, stakes could not be higher for a number of regional heavyweights like Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray and deputy CM Ajit Pawar for whom its a make-or-break election.
The two Pawars, Shinde and Thackeray are engaged in an intense and riveting battle to seek popular legitimacy for their parties, and which way the voters turn could spell the end of the road for two of them when the results of the election to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly are declared on November 23.
The senior Pawar, who will turn 84 next month, delivered a debilitation blow to his nephew, whose breakaway faction was recognised as the real Nationalist Congress Party by the Election Commission, in the Lok Sabha elections and is looking to strike a knockout punch in the assembly polls, while Ajit Pawar is hoping to bounce back.
The Lok Sabha results, however, gave both Thackeray, who heads Shiv Sena (UBT) after the Shind-led group was recognised as the real Shiv Sena, and the chief minister something to cheer about, rendering the assembly election the air of a final match that could deliver only one winner.
While the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and Thackeray's party are part of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, which has the Congress as its third important player, the NCP and Shiv Sena are allied with the BJP-led ruling Mahayuti.
How the four regional satraps perform is bound to dictate the politics of the two national parties.
The BJP is contesting 149 seats, Shiv Sena 81 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has fielded candidates in 59 constituencies.
In the opposition alliance, the Congress has fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95, and the NCP (SP) 86.
What has added a sharp edge to the factional fights is the fact that the two claimants of Shiv Sena's popular legacy have squared off against each other in over 50 seats, while the nominees of the two Pawars are up against each other in nearly 37 constituencies.
At the centre of poll sweepstakes involving the two Sena is the question mark over "Mumbai ka king kaun", as many of their workers said in a reference to the sway the undivided Shiv Sena had over the country's financial capital and which is now being contested by the two parties.
The uncle-nephew battle is the sharpest in western Maharashtra, a prosperous region where the Pawar clan is rooted.
Sharad Pawar, a four-term former chief minister of the state whose wily moves have shaped the state's politics for decades, has called for the defeat of betrayers, a reference to Ajit Pawar and his nominees.
The nephew in turn has refrained from using sharp words against him, wary of stirring popular sympathy for the ageing leader who had handed him a big defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
The NCP (SP) had won eight seats in the Lok Sabha polls against the NCP's one.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) had emerged victorious in nine constituencies against the Sena's seven.
The poll season was dominated by conflicting narratives ranging from the opposition's planks of economic distress, farmers's woes, the Centre's "discrimination" against Maharashtra and the BJP's alleged role in breaking up the two regional parties to the ruling alliance touting its welfare schemes, development projects and the Hindutva agenda against what it slammed as the MVA's appeasement politics.
But when the results are declared on Saturday, it will not only announce the popular verdict on the two differing agendas but also seal the fate of some of the most important players in the state's politics.
