Election Commission to announce Maharashtra poll dates today

Representative image

The Election Commission of India will be announcing the dates for Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 on Tuesday, October 15. The ECI, in their media statement, said that the announcement will be made at 3.30 pm in a conference at Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi. The ECI, along with the Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024, will also announce dates for the Jharkhand assembly election.

While the Maharashtra assembly's term finishes on November 26, Jharkhand's concludes on January 5 of next year.

According to a PTI report, besides the assembly election date, the EC can also announce by-polls to three Lok Sabha seats and at least 47 assembly seats that have been vacant due to various reasons.

The three Lok Saha seats lying vacant are Kerala's Wayanad, Maharashtra's Nanded and West Bengal's Basrihat. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi vacated the Wayanad seat as he retained the Rae Bareli seat. He won Lok Sabha Elections 2024 from both the seats.

Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024: Battle of grand alliances

The ruling Mahayuti Alliance, which consists of the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), will face off against the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, which is made up of the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and Congress, in the next election.

Only 17 of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha seats were won by the BJP-led MYA in the most recent legislative elections. Five years ago, the BJP held 23 seats; now, it just holds nine. In the meantime, 30 seats were won by the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which included the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (Sharad Pawar).

In 2019, the BJP and the united Shiv Sena established a government, but after some political theatre, they broke away. The Congress won 44 seats and the BJP won 105 seats in the 2019 assembly election.

With agency inputs