High-decibel campaigning for Maha ends, polling tomorrow

The high-voltage campaign for Maharashtra assembly election ended on Monday, pitting the two major political alliances against each other in a bitter battle for the 288 seats up for grabs in the state.

- Shailesh Gaikwad and Surendra P Gangan

Blitzing the electorate with welfare schemes and monetary handouts, slogans that raised heat and dust, and a dramatic flourish from senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the final day capped two weeks of campaigning.

Battling it out in the November 20 election are the two main coalitions - the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and its partners, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP); and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which includes Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP). A total of 4,136 candidates are in the fray.

The election will, however, determine more than who heads the new government. It will also determine whether the Mahayuti can reverse the massive losses it suffered during the recent Lok Sabha elections, where the MVA won 30 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats and the Mahayuti just 17, and whether the MVA can return to power, even after splits in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party.