Election Commission to announce dates for Maharashtra, Jharkhand polls today

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the schedule for Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections at 3.30 pm on Tuesday, October 15.

The term of 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will end on November 26, while the Jharkhand Assembly, which has 81 seats, will finish its term on January 5, 2025.

In Maharashtra, the ruling Mahayuti coalition, made up of the BJP, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party, will compete against the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes the Congress, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).

In Jharkhand, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), part of the INDIA bloc, will go against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which includes the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Janata Dal (United), and the BJP.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to release its first candidate list for the Maharashtra polls with over 60 names in the next two days once it’s cleared by its central election committee (CEC), according to people aware of the matter.

BJP’s national president, JP Nadda, and union home minister Amit Shah also held a marathon meeting on Monday in New Delhi with key leaders from the party’s Maharashtra unit and two state election-in-charges, Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The party’s Maharashtra unit has finalised about 100 candidates, including sitting MLAs, for the CEC to choose from.

Meanwhile, the Congress party too convened a meeting to strategise for the Maharashtra assembly elections, discussing key topics such as seat-sharing with allies in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and electoral guarantees.

The party aims to avoid the mistakes that led to its defeat in the recent Haryana elections. The meeting chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in the national capital was attended by former party chief Rahul Gandhi, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole, leader of opposition in Maharashtra assembly Vijay Wadettiwar and senior leader Balasaheb Thorat.