Polling began on a peaceful note on Monday morning across all 288 Assembly constituencies of Maharashtra and across the 90 Assembly constituencies in Haryana, amidst tight security. The polling began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm. The results of the two Assembly elections will be announced on October 24.
Maharashtra
Braving rain in many parts of the state including Mumbai, early voters turned up to exercise their franchise.
Electors across the state could be seen reaching polling stations even before voting started at 7 a.m. Among the early voters was Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and incumbent Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance is making a determined bid to recapture power for a second consecutive term, and the opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine is leaving no stone unturned to return to power after remaining in the political wilderness for five years.
With a staggering 3,237 candidates in the fray from among a host of different parties, the contests for the 288 seats promises to be an all-out political war.
The BJP currently has 122 members while the Shiv Sena has 63. Of the state's total electorate of 8.97 crore, 4.68 crore are men and 4.28 crore are women, plus 2,634 transgender voters. The ECI has set up 966,661 polling stations and the total number of VVPAT EVMs for voting will be 135,021 in the state.
Haryana
Over 1.83 crore voters in BJP-ruled Haryana cast their votes in a single-phase polling that began on Monday morning to elect the 90-member legislative Assembly, election officials said.
Other than minor initial hiccups in the operation of the electronic voting machines, voting began across the state at a brisk pace.
Electors across the state could be seen reaching polling stations even before voting started at 7 a.m. The polling will continue till 6 p.m.
"There has been no report of any delay in starting the poll process," an electoral officer told IANS here.
The election result would be out on October 24, coinciding with the Maharashtra assembly election result. A total of 1,169 candidates, including 105 women, are in the fray. One candidate is a transgender.
Political observers say the main contest is largely between the BJP and the Congress.
(With IANS inputs)