Both the States are now being governed by the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The term of the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly ends on November 2 and November 9 respectively. There are 1.82 crore voters in the northern State while Maharashtra has 8.9 crore voters. Polling in both the States will be held on October 21 in a single phase and the results will be declared on October 24, the Election Commission announced on Saturday. During the election the ECI will also send two special expenditure observers, both retired Indian Revenue Service officers, to Maharashtra to check election spending by candidates.
The ECI also announced that by-elections for one Lok Sabha seat in Samastipur, Bihar and 64 Assembly constituencies will be held on October 21. Polls would be held in Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Meghalaya, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
In Maharashtra, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have already figured a seat-sharing plan, the parties will fight about 123-125 seats each and leave 41 for smaller allies in a 288 member legislature, said Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan. Depending on the consensus between the parties, the seats may be swapped. In Haryana, the Manohar Lal Khattar’s government kicked off its poll campaign for the Assembly elections as early as August 18 for the 90-member legislature. The Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) are the major opposition parties in the State.
The BJP in Haryana won 47 and the Congress 15; the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) grabbed 19. The rest were won by other regional parties and independents. In Maharashtra, the ruling BJP and its ally Shiv Sena are still hammering out the nitty-gritty of sharing seats for the forthcoming election. However, it is important to note that in the last 2014 State elections, both parties did not contest as an alliance and they fought separately. The BJP had won 122 seats while the Shiv Sena bagged 63 seats. This time around, it is likely that both parties will form a pre-poll alliance and the BJP will surely try to, as it has to also fight against the incumbency factor which is likely to creep in due to the economic slowdown.
BJP’s rival Congress and the NCP also fought separately in 2014 and appear to be struggling in Maharashtra after an exodus of leaders to the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Understanding has been reached between the Congress and the NCP to fight together this time. In 2014, the Congress won 42 and Sharad Pawar’s NCP won 41 seats. Congress and NCP have yet to begin their campaign in the presence of national leaders.
The Congress is still in disarray and in the States of Haryana and Maharashtra, it is working on regrouping and making a strategy for a comeback after a series of defeats in the last State as well as the national elections. Maharashtra’s BJP Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took out a rally last month in the State, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally on Thursday at the close of the roadshow.
For both, Haryana and Maharashtra, this election is also the first after the Modi 2.0 government’s big and some shocking policy decisions, including banning Triple Talaq, abrogation of the special status from Jammu and Kashmir and dividing it into two Union Territories and amendment to Right to Information Act, arrests of Congress leaders on charges of economic offence and several other changes which has impacted India as a whole.
The issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) is one of its major election issues in Haryana as the State government’s effort to sieve out illegal immigrants in the State, similar to the one which was recently carried out in Assam. However, the opposition parties have not been able to raise their voice on this issue which could be heard by the electorate.
In the northern State, the BJP made a big entry in 2014 with a new face, Manohar Lal Khattar. The party also swept the national election this year amid Congress infighting. The regional INLD is having trouble due to a family feud. With all these factors playing, unless the opposition pulls up their socks and bury their differences and strategise over fighting the BJP, it looks as if the opposition is laying their defeat on the platter for the NDA.
