Voting Begins For All Maharashtra Seats, Jharkhand Phase 2; Assembly Bypolls In UP And Punjab Add To Political Action

All 288 assembly seats of Maharashtra will vote today (20 November), along with the second phase of voting in Jharkhand for 38 assembly seats.

The bypolls will take place for nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP), four in Punjab, one in Palakkad of Kerala and one in Kedarnath of Uttarakhand along with a parliamentary seat in Maharashtra's Nanded.

In Maharashtra, the contest is between two alliances, the ruling Mahayuti, of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

MVA of Congress, Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray's Shive Sena (UBT) aims to dethrone Mahayuti, counting upon its Lok Sabha election performance where it could win 31 of 48 seats.

The high-profile contests will be witnessed in Aaditya Thackeray's seat Worli, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Kopri-Pachpakhadi and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis's Nagpur South-West.

In Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress coalition aims to retain power while the BJP, under the leadership of state president Babulal Marandi wants to return to power after the 2019 loss.

Voting for 43 seats took place on 13 November. Among the remaining 38 seats, there are high-profile seats like CM Hemant Soren's Barhait, Babulal Marandi's Dhanwar and Kalpana Soren's Gande.

In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav is treating the bypolls like a semi-final for the 2027 UP assembly election and has given tickets to mostly relatives of SP leaders.

The BJP wants to recover from the 2024 Lok Sabha losses through these by-polls by winning seven of the nine seats. The contest has become tripolar with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also fielding candidates.

Similarly in Punjab, the contest is tripolar with the ruling AAP, Congress and the BJP in the fray. Chhabewal, Dera Baba Nanak, Gidderbaha and Barnala will witness bypolls.

In Kerala's Palakkad, the BJP actually has a chance at winning in a tripolar contest with Congress and the ruling Left. In Uttarakhand's Kedarnath, the contest is bipolar between Congress and BJP.