Maharashtra Election Results 2019 Date, Time: Counting of votes today, BJP seeks second straight term

Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha Result 2019 Date and Time: The fate of 3,237 candidates including 235 women in Maharashtra will be decided on Thursday when counting of votes is taken up at 8 AM amid tight security. The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine and the Congress-NCP alliance have both claimed that they are confident of forming the next government in Maharashtra. However, exit polls have predicted that the BJP and Shiv Sena’s return to power with a thumping majority in the 288-member Legislative Assembly.

While the BJP has fielded its nominees in 164 Assembly seats including candidates of smaller parties who are contesting on its “lotus” symbol, the Shiv Sena is contesting 124 seats. On the other hand, the Congress has fielded 147 candidates while its ally NCP contested from 121 seats.

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Prominent candidates include Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from Nagpur South West, and his predecessor from the Congress Ashok Chavan, who is the fray from Bhokar in Nanded district. Former Congress CM Prithviraj Chavan is seeking a re-election from Karad South in Satara district.

The BJP under Devendra Fadnavis’ leadership is seeking a second straight term in the state. With five years in office since 2014, Fadnavis has the distinction of becoming the first Chief Minister in the last 47 years to complete his five-year term in office.

Another factor to watch out for in these elections will be the number of seats the Shiv Sena manages to win. Any improvement in the tally from 63 in the previous elections will give it a bigger say in the alliance. Aaditya Thackeray, the son of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, has also entered the poll fray from Worli constituency in Mumbai. The 29-year-old Yuva Sena chief is the first leader from his family to enter electoral politics. The Worli seat in Mumbai-Thane region has been historically the stronghold of the Shiv Sena.

The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has fielded 101 candidates. The CPI 16, the CPM 8. The BSP has fielded candidates in 262 constituencies. As many as 1,400 Independents are also in the fray.

The voting was held peacefully on Monday in a single-phase across all the 288 seats. According to the Election Commission, the state has total 8,98,39,600 voters, including 1,06,76,013 in the age group of 18 to 25 years. A total of 6.5 lakh polling personnel were deployed at 96,661 polling booths. Nearly 1,35,021 VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines were used. Of the 288 constituencies, Nanded-South seat has the maximum 38 candidates, while Chiplun in Ratnagiri district has just three nominees. The polling percentage was recorded at 61.13%, a dip from 63.20% in 2014.

The campaign was mainly dominated by the aggressive narrative of Article 370 abrogation by the BJP. The BJP raised the nationalism issue and corruption cases against opposition leaders to woo the voters. From BJP’s side, PM Narendra NarendraModi addressed nine rallies across the state. BJP national president Amit Shah also held several rallies across the state. In their speeches, Modi and Shah dared the Opposition to bring back provisions of the now-scrapped Article 370 in their election manifesto. The BJP raised the Hindutva issue and promised to confer the Bharat Ratna on Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in its manifesto.

The issue of Article 370 and Savarkar forced Congress to nuance its position on both the issues. Former PM Manmohan Singh had to clarify that the party was not against the scrapping of Article 370 from Maharashtra and was also not against Savarkar per se, but the Hindutva ideology.

From Opposition’s side, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed a total of six election rallies. He spoke about the country’s economy, unemployment, failure of demonetisation exercise and GST rollout tp convince the voters. Only NCP chief Sharad Pawar, 79, addressed a number of rallies in which he attacked PM Modi and BJP on a string of issues.

On the last day of the campaign on Saturday, CM Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray held roadshows in their respective constituencies of Nagpur South West and Worli in Mumbai, respectively.