Maharashtra to vote on Nov 20; Jharkhand on Nov 13, 20; results on Nov 23
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the voting schedule for Maharashtra and Jharkhand this afternoon. Maharashtra will go to the polls on November 20, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 23. Jharkhand will vote in two phases, on November 13 and 20, with vote counting for both states also taking place on November 23.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar noted that with these elections, the ECI is setting "gold standards," citing the "free and fair elections" conducted in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir as examples. Over 12 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots across the two states.
In Maharashtra, the 2019 elections saw the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), a coalition of the then-unified Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Congress secure 154 out of 288 seats. However, this time around, both the Shiv Sena and NCP have splintered into factions.
Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is preparing to face the BJP. In the 2019 elections, JMM won 30 seats and formed a government with the Congress, which secured 16 seats.
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Will vacate one of two assembly seats won in 10 days: BJP''s Suvendu
Kolkata (PTI): BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur and secured Nandigram for three times in a row in the recent assembly polls, said on Wednesday that he would vacate one of the two constituencies within 10 days.
Adhikari also asserted that the party's central leadership would decide which constituency he would retain.
"I will vacate one seat within 10 days. The party will decide which one I retain. I will not forget my responsibility towards the people of Bhabanipur and Nandigram," he said.
Adhikari on Monday defeated Banerjee in Bhabanipur by over 15,000 votes, puncturing what was long seen as her safest political refuge and delivering a decisive psychological blow to the TMC, amid a sweeping BJP surge across West Bengal.
Addressing party workers and supporters in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district, the BJP leader appealed to them not to take out victory processions immediately and instead maintain peace.
"Do not take out victory rallies now. Maintain peace and discipline. Celebrate after May 9, after taking permission," he told party workers.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Wednesday announced that the oath-taking ceremony of the new government will be held on May 9 at Brigade Parade Ground.
Referring to alleged attacks on BJP workers during the TMC regime, Adhikari said he would not forget the “atrocities" faced by them and assured them of taking appropriate action against perpetrators through legal processes.
"I was part of the 2011 ‘poribartan’ (change), and now I am part of the real change. I offer my gratitude to the people of Nandigram," Adhikari said.
He was referring to the TMC's victory in 2011 when the Mamata Banerjee party dismantled the 34-year Left Front regime in the state.
Adhikari offered prayers at a Hanuman statue in Nandigram and remembered the BJP workers, who had died in political violence.
"We will work in such a way that the BJP government in Bengal stays for 100 years," he said, expressing hope that the BJP’s vote share in the state would rise from the current 46 per cent to 60 per cent in future elections.
The BJP leader also assured residents of Nandigram of improved drinking water supply and better hospital and education infrastructure.
