NewDelhi: Polling to elect Maharashtra and Haryana assemblies kickstarted at 7 am on Monday with the electoral fate of over 4400 candidates – 1169 in Haryana and 3237 in Maharashtra set to be sealed in EVMs. Bypolls is also being held to 51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states.
Maharashtra is witnessing an intense contest between two coalitions ‘Mahayuti’ of BJP-Shiv Sena and ‘Maha-agadhi’ led by the Congress and the NCP. After completing five years at Chief Minister’s Office, Devendra Fadnavis is in the electoral battle asking for a second term while opposition is cornering him on the issues of unemployment, agrarian distress and drought.
In the 288-member Assembly, BJP is contesting 164 seats, which includes candidates of smaller allies contesting on its lotus symbol, while its ally Shiv Sena has fielded 126 candidates. On the other hand, Congress has its candidates in 147 constituencies and NCP will contest 121 seats.
In Haryana, the assembly election will witness a multi-cornered contest among BJP, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Both BJP and Congress are contesting on 90 seats, BSP 87, four from the CPI 4, CPI-M 7, NCP 1, INLD 81, Independents 375 and 434 other candidates are in the fray.
Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. Tight security arrangements have been made with deployment of more than three lakh personnel from state police and central forces in Maharashtra, while over 75,000 security personnel have been mobilised in Haryana.
Assembly elections: 6.35% voter turnout recorded in Maharashtra till 11am. 11.68% in Haryana.
Mumbai has been witnessing continuous downpour since the last few days. Due to the rain, water-logging has been reported from some areas in the city, causing inconvenience to voters. To encourage people to come out and vote, the BMC has been levelling the water-logging areas near the booth.
Haryana assembly election: Supporters of Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda dance in Sanghi village in Rohtak the former CM is expected to arrive shortly.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut casts vote alongwith his family members in Mumbai’s Bhandup, says ‘If Mahaashtra wishes, Aditya Thackeray will become the next CM of the state.’
Haryana CM ML Khattar casts his vote in Karnal, says ‘Voting is underway peacefully across the state. Opposition parties including Congress have already lost and have left the battleground. Their tall claims have no value.’
Haryana assembly election: CM Manohar Lal Khattar rides a cycle to the polling booth.
Maharashtra assembly election: Actress Madhuri Dixit leaves after casting her vote at a polling booth in Bandra(West).
Ritesh Deshmukh, wife Genelia DSouza and family members cast their votes at a polling booth in Latur. Ritesh’s brothers Amit and Dhiraj Deshmukh are contesting polls as Congress candidates from Latur city and Latur rural constituencies, respectively.
Maharashtra assembly election: CM Devendra Fadnavis, wife Amruta and mother Sarita cast their vote at a polling booth in Nagpur.
No trading at BSE and NSE today due to Maharashtra polls
Exchanges have announced trading holiday on October 21 on account of assembly elections in Maharashtra. The exchanges have announced trading holiday for capital markets, futures and options and currency derivative segment.
Maharashtra assemebly election: Morshi-Warud Assembly seat (Amravati district) candidate Devendra Bhuyar was attacked by unknown miscreants on the polling day.
Maharashtra assembly election: From the film fraternity, Lara Dutta-Mahesh Bhupati and Aamir Khan-Kiran Rao cast their votes in Mumbai.
Maharashtra assembly election: Former Home Minister and Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde, along with wife Ujwala and daughter Praniti Shinde, casts his vote at a polling booth in Solapur. Praniti Shinde is contesting elections as Congress candidate from Solapur Central.
Haryana assembly election: Ex-Haryana CM and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda says JJP and INLD are not party’s competition in the state assembly poll.
Maharashtra assembly election: People arrive to vote amid heavy rain, in Latur.
Maharashtra assembly election: Specially-abled voters being brought to polling booths in Mumbai’s Sewari on wheelchair compatible vehicles by Election Commission.
Maharashtra assembly election: Senior NCP leader Praful Patel and his wife Varsha cast their votes at a polling booth in Gondia assembly constituency. Gopal Agarwal from BJP and Amar Varade from Congress are contesting from this constituency.
Maharashtra assembly election: Actor and BJP MP from Gorakhpur Ravi Kishan and actress Padmini Kolhapure cast their votes at polling booths in Mumbai’s Goregaon and Andheri (West) constituency, respectively.
Haryana assembly election: JJP leader Dushyant Chautala, along with his entire family, arrives on a tractor to a polling booth in Sirsa to cast his vote.
Maharashtra poll: 5 percent voter turnout recorded till 9 am across 10 assembly constituencies in Mumbai city district.
Maharashtra assembly election: Three assembly constituencies in Sangli district – Miraj, Sangli and Jat record 0% turnout in the first two hours.
Assembly elections: 1.09 percent voting recorded till 9 am in Maharashtra, 2.45% in Haryana.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari casts his vote.
Wrestlers Babita Phogat, Geeta Phogat and their family cast their vote at a polling booth in Balali village in Charkhi Dadri constituency. Babita Phogat is contesting on BJP ticket from here against Congress candidate Nirpender Singh Sangwan and JJP candidate Satpal Sangwan.
Haryana election: Yogeshwar Dutt, Olympic medallist and BJP candidate from Baroda casts his vote in Sonipat. He is contesting against Congress candidate Krishan Hooda.
Maharashtra election: Senior NCP leader Supriya Sule casts her vote in Baramati. Her cousin and NCP leader Ajit Pawar is contesting against BJP’s Gopichand Padalkar from the constituency.
Abrogation of Article 370 will not have any impact in Haryana Assembly polls: Ex-Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda
BSE, NSE to remain close today due to assembly election in Maharashtra.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal in Mumbai expresses his confidence in BJP:
I am confident that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will win around 225 seats, opposition has lost all credibility and is nowhere in the contest. People are with Modi ji and Fadnavis ji; Goyal
Haryana election: TikTok star Sonali Phogat, who is contesting on a BJP ticket from Adampur constituency, casts her vote. She is up against senior Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi.
Haryana election: Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee President Kumari Selja casts her vote at polling booth number 103 in Yashoda Public School.
Haryana election 2019: Congress candidate from Kaithal Randeep Singh Surjewala offers prayers to Baba Bholenath before casting his vote.
Aditya and his father and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will cast their votes at Navjivan Vidya School in Bandra area of Mumbai.
Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray, who is contesting from Worli assembly seat, visit Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak temple to offer his prayers.
Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee President Kumari Selja casts her vote at polling booth number 103 in Yashoda Public School in Hisar.
98-year-old Suprabha Devi casts her vote in Garhi Sampla assembly seat in Rohtak. She has voted in all the elections since Independece.
Voting is on hold after an EVM machine at booth number 286 in Badshahpur (Gurugram) stops working.
Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah appeals voters to turn out in large numbers.
Maharashtra assembly election: Actress Shubha Khote casts her vote for the Andheri West constituency.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Baramati candidate Ajit Pawar casts his vote. Ajit Pawar is pitted against BJP’s Gopichand Padalkar.
If the Voter has put the printed Vote in a Ballot Box then he or the candidates or the Political Parties can’t complain. And the time taken would be the same. So it would be a reliable system of a combination of EVM and Ballot Box. I feel all Political Parties who requested CEC to do away with EVM and return to Ballot Box should consider this option for a greater reliability in our Elections which would strengthen our Democracy and again call a meeting to consider this option: Digvijaya Singh
Congress raises doubts on EVMs once again
Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh today took to Twitter amd requested CEC to replace EVMs with ballot boxes. “After pressing the button on ballot unit instead the Voter seeing the picture on the screen for 7 seconds the printer should give the Voter printed vote in his hand which he can physically put in a ballot box.”
“Now the argument put forward by CEC would be that the counting would take a lot of time. As it stands today CEC picks up 5 booths randomly and checks the printed vote as per Supreme Court order.”
Over 13,000 Paramilitary personnel, more than 20,000 Home Guards and Special police officers have been deployed for the voting scheduled for October 21.
Maharashtra poll: Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro casts his vote for the Worli Assembly constituency.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat casts his vote in Nagpur, urge people to come out in large numbers. “I appeal to everyone to exercise their right to vote. We emphasis 100 percent polling.”
Visuals: A voter casts his vote at booth number 244-250 for the Malabar Hill assembly constituency. Mangal Prabhat Lodha for BJP and Heera Devasi for Congress are contesting from this constituency.
PM Modi appeals voters to come out in large numbers:
Elections are taking place for Haryana & Maharashtra assemblies. There are also by-polls taking place in various parts of India. I urge voters in these states & seats to turnout in record numbers & enrich the festival of democracy.I hope youngsters vote in large numbers: PM Modi
Polling for 90 Assembly seats of Haryana and 288 seats of Maharashtra kickstarted at 7 am today and will continue till 6 pm.
In Haryana, 19,578 polling stations have been set up whereas 96,661 in Maharashtra for people to cast their votes.
Bureau Report
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