NEW DELHI: The Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held on November 20 and in Jharkhand in two phases on November 13 and November 20, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday.
The results of the elections in both states will be announced on November 23, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference here.
While the term of the Maharashtra Assembly ends on November 26, the tenure of the Jharkhand Assembly is scheduled to end on January 5 next year. There are 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra while Jharkhand has 81.
The poll panel also announced that the byelections to 47 Assembly seats across 14 states and to the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, vacated by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, would be held on November 13. The byelection to the Kedarnath Assembly seat in Uttarakhand and the Nanded Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra would be held on November 20. The results of all byelections would be declared on November 23.
Kumar said the gazette notification for the Maharashtra Assembly elections would be issued on October 22, the last date for filing of nominations was October 29, the scrutiny of nominations would take place on October 30 and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature was November 4.
“There are 9.63 crore eligible voters in Maharashtra while the number of eligible voters in Jharkhand is 2.6 crore,” he said.
The Maharashtra elections will see a key contest between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Shiv Sena-UBT, NCP-Sharad Pawar faction, Congress) and the ruling Mahayuti Alliance (BJP, Shiv Sena-Eknath Shinde faction, NCP-Ajit Pawar faction).
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 105 seats, while the Congress had secured 44. The BJP’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year saw a dip with the party winning only nine of the 48 seats in the state compared to 23 in the previous term. The Maha Vikas Aghadi had won 30 seats.
In 2019, the Jharkhand Assembly elections were held in five phases from November 30 to December 20 and the results were declared on December 23.
In 2019, the Maharashtra Assembly elections were held on October 21. The results were declared on October 24.