(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) 288-seat state assembly elections to be held on October 15; single party unlikely to form next govt feel experts.
With barely a fortnight’s time left for campaigning political parties in Maharashtra are gearing up to reach out to the more than 82 million eligible voters across the state over the coming days.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address about 15 rallies in the state for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul are also likely to campaign for the party’s candidates in about a dozen constituencies.
Elections to the 288-seat Maharashtra assembly will be held on October 15 and results declared on October 19. The break-up of the two major alliances in the state between the BJP and the Shiv Sena and the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has resulted in all four major parties deciding to contest a majority of the seats.
More than 7400 candidates filed their nominations for the elections by Saturday the last date for filing of nominations. And with the presence of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidates in many constituencies the fight will be five-cornered in most seats.
The BJP which had sought 135 seats for itself from the Shiv Sena — before the talks broke down and the two partners separated — is contesting from 257 seats. It has left 31 seats for its four junior partners.
The Shiv Sena is contesting from 286 seats and has decided not to oppose two candidates one from the BJP and the other an independent. The Sena which had been quite close to Gopinath Munde the late BJP leader will not field a candidate against his daughter Pankaja who is contesting from Parli on a BJP ticket. The ambitious Pankaja is being projected as a possible chief ministerial candidate of the BJP by her supporters though the party has not officially declared any such candidate.
The Sena is also not fielding a candidate from Byculla in Mumbai and is supporting Geeta daughter of underworld don Arun Gawli. The BJP has in recent days been able to attract many senior leaders and activists from parties including the Congress NCP and Shiv Sena to its fold.
In Karad south constituency from where the outgoing chief minister Prithviraj Chavan will be contesting elections the BJP has given the ticket to a Congress rebel Atul Bhosale. The party is similarly fielding several former ministers MLAs and MLCs who have quit the Congress and the NCP from different constituencies.
The Shiv Sena will find the going tough in some of its strongholds including Mumbai Thane Konkan Nashik and Pune as its candidates will be battling rivals from the MNS and the BJP.
According to analysts it will be difficult for any single party to win 145 seats the minimum needed to form the next government. Though leaders from the BJP and NCP deny that they would seek help from each other after elections political observers do not rule out any permutations in a bid to form the new government.
nithinkhaleejtimes.com
For more news from Khaleej Times follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes and on Twitter at khaleejtimes
Follow khaleejtimes ->
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.