New Delhi:
Assembly Elections 2024 Live Updates: Voting is underway on 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra, with the ruling Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi competing for power in the state. Prominent leaders are in the race, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, contesting from Kopri-Pachpakhadi, and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, defending his bastion in Nagpur South West. NCP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar wants to retain the family bastion Baramati.
In Jharkhand, 528 candidates, including 55 women, one third gender candidate and 472 men, are contesting on 38 seats in this phase. More than 1.23 crore voters, including 61 lakh women, are eligible to cast their votes. In the elections, mainly the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) led alliance is contesting against the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Prominent candidates in Jharkhand include Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren and his sister-in-law Sita Soren from JMM.
Meanwhile, voting is also going on for by-elections on 15 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand. By-elections are to be held on nine seats of Uttar Pradesh – Mirapur, Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Khair, Karhal, Shishamau, Phulpur, Katehri and Majhawan. In Punjab, by-elections are being held in four assembly constituencies: Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC), and Barnala.
By 9 am, two hours after polling began, Maharashtra recorded 6.6 percent voting.
Some of the bigwigs in the electoral fray include Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, state Congress chief Nana Patole, state NCP (SP) chief Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya. Thackeray, MNS candidate Amit Thackeray, former Union Minister Milind Deora and former Minister Amit Deshmukh.
More than 30,000 police personnel have been deployed on security duty in Mumbai for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Five additional commissioners of police, 20 deputy commissioners of police, 83 assistant commissioners of police, over 2,000 other police officers and 25,000 personnel have been deployed.
Additionally, three riot control platoons have been pressed into duty for the purpose of maintaining order. The traffic department has separately deployed 144 officers and over 1,000 other personnel on security duty.
Voting for by-elections in four assembly constituencies in Punjab began at 7 am on Wednesday amid tight security. By-elections in Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala assembly constituencies had become necessary after the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha.
45 candidates including three women are in the fray in the by-election.
Prominent contestants in the fray include former Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Kewal Singh Dhillon, Sohan Singh Thandal and Ravikaran Singh Kahlon (BJP), Amrita Waring and Jatinder Kaur (Congress), and Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Ishank Kumar Chabbewal (AAP). . Shiromani Akali Dal has not fielded candidates for the by-election, the results of which will be declared on November 23.
Voting in the by-election for Palakkad assembly constituency in Kerala, major contenders are Rahul Mamkootathil (Congress-led UDF), C. Krishnakumar (BJP-led NDA), and P. Sarin (CPI(M)-led LDF). In the field.
The by-election was necessitated after Congress leader Shafi Parambil resigned as the constituency’s MLA after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara during the general elections.
The Palakkad constituency holds vital importance for the Congress-led UDF, not just to retain the seat but also because its rival LDF candidate, Sarin, is a former digital media convenor of KPCC. Sarin was expelled from the Congress after criticizing the party’s decision to select state Youth Congress president Mamkoottathil as its candidate for the Palakkad by-election.
Prominent candidates in the fray include Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren and his sister-in-law Sita Soren from JMM. Prominent BJP leaders in the second phase include former chief minister Babulal Marandi, Assembly Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahato (JMM), AJSU party chief Sudesh Mahato and opposition leader Amar Kumar Bauri.
This election is mainly a fight between the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) led alliance and the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
In the second phase of assembly elections, many interesting contests are being seen in 38 constituencies of 12 districts of Jharkhand.
The first phase of Jharkhand elections was held on 13 November in 43 out of 81 assembly seats. The results for all 81 constituencies will be declared on November 23 along with the Maharashtra Assembly elections and by-elections in several states.
A total of 528 candidates are in the fray for 38 seats in this phase, including 55 women and one third gender candidate and 472 male candidates. Of the 38 seats for which elections are to be held, eight are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and three for Scheduled Castes (SC).
In the first phase of Jharkhand elections, 66.65 per cent voting was recorded in 43 assembly constituencies, showing an increase of 2.75 per cent compared to the 2019 assembly elections. According to data released by the Election Commission, women cast more votes than men in 37 out of 43 constituencies.
According to a report, more than 30 percent of the candidates contesting by-elections in Uttar Pradesh have criminal cases against them, while 48 percent are crorepatis.
The richest candidate in the fray is BJP’s Shuchismita Maurya (Majhwan), who has assets worth more than Rs 50 crore in her name, followed by SP’s Sumbul Rana (Mirapur), who has assets worth more than Rs 40 crore, and SP’s Singh Raj Jatav. (Ghaziabad), who has Rs 28 crore. , it added.
The three poorest candidates in the fray are independent candidates. According to the report, Rupesh Chandra (Ghaziabad) has total assets of Rs 18,000, followed by Rita Vishwakarma and Gayatri, who are both contesting from Phulpur and have Rs 27,000 in their name each.
In terms of education, 33 (37 per cent) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th class, while 49 (54 per cent) candidates are graduation or above.
There is a direct contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party on all nine seats of Uttar Pradesh – Ghaziabad, Khair, Mirapur, Kundarki, Karhal, Sisamau, Katehari, Majhawan and Phulpur.
In Ghaziabad, BJP’s Sanjeev Sharma is contesting against SP’s Singh Raj Jatav, while BSP has fielded PN Garg. A close contest is being witnessed in SP’s stronghold of Karhal (Mainpuri). Mulayam Singh Yadav’s grandson and SP’s Tej Pratap Yadav is contesting against BJP’s Anujesh Pratap Singh Yadav, who is a relative of the same family.
Katehari seat had become vacant after Lalji Verma became MP. His wife is the SP candidate, while BJP has fielded Dharamraj Nishad and BSP has fielded Amit Verma. Kundarki assembly seat is in the home district of BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhary. Here BJP’s Ramveer Thakur is contesting against SP’s Haji Rizwan. Rafatullah of BSP and candidates of AIMIM and Azad Samaj Party have made it a multi-cornered contest.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s association with Kedarnath and his direct involvement in the reconstruction projects worth over Rs 2,000 crore initiated in Kedarpuri after coming to power at the Center has been one of the key election issues of the BJP.
Along with this, the party is also highlighting the strict anti-conversion law, ban on land jihad and passage of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as bold steps taken by the state government to arrest the changing demography of the hill state. To woo voters.
Lack of development, BJP’s alleged protection to Ankita Bhandari’s killers, mismanagement of the Chardham Yatra during the July 31 disaster and the state government’s support for building a replica of Kedarnath in Delhi are some of the issues Congress has raised for victory. . Voter.
In Kedarnath, BJP and Congress are once again in a direct contest in the assembly constituency, where the stakes are high for both the parties. While BJP faces the challenge of retaining the seat, Congress wants to ensure BJP’s defeat on another Hindutva seat after Badrinath.
BJP candidate Asha Nautiyal, who is also the state BJP Mahila Morcha president, is in the race to replace MLA Shaila Rani Rawat, who died in July this year. He is pitted against journalist-turned-politician Congress candidate Manoj Rawat.
Out of the five assembly elections held so far in Kedarnath, BJP has won thrice and Congress twice.
