Besides CM Soren and his wife, prominent among the candidates include state BJP president and ex-CM Babulal Marandi, Assembly Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahto (JMM) and BJP ally AJSU Party chief Sudesh Mahto.Top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP present JP Nadda and chief ministers of several states addressed a number of rallies where they attacked the JMM-led coalition over corruption and infiltration.INDIA bloc leaders including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and his wife and legislator Kalpana Soren campaigned extensively, promising welfare schemes and accusing the BJP-led Centre of “unleashing” ED and CBI against the rival parties.There are 28 reserved seats for ST candidates and nine for SC contestants. Of the SC seats, JMM won 2, BJP 6 and RJD 1 in the 2019 polls.In ST reserved seats, JMM was victorious in 19, Congress in 6, BJP 2 and JVM(P) 1.This time, as far as NDA is concerned, BJP has fielded candidates in 68 seats while allies AJSU Party in 10, JD(U) in two and Lok Janshakti (Ram Vilas) in one.Of the INDIA bloc, JMM has fielded candidates in 43 seats, Congress 30, RJD 6 and CPI(ML) 4 with friendly fights on some seats.In the 2019 assembly elections, the contest was close, with the JMM winning 30 seats and the BJP securing 25, down from 37 in 2014.The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won a comfortable majority with 47 seats.Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, stakes could not be higher for a number of regional heavyweights like Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray and deputy CM Ajit Pawar for whom its a make-or-break election.The two Pawars, Shinde and Thackeray are engaged in an intense and riveting battle to seek popular legitimacy for their parties, and which way the voters turn could spell the end of the road for two of them when the results of the election to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly are declared on November 23.The senior Pawar, who will turn 84 next month, delivered a debilitation blow to his nephew, whose breakaway faction was recognised as the real Nationalist Congress Party by the Election Commission, in the Lok Sabha elections and is looking to strike a knockout punch in the assembly polls, while Ajit Pawar is hoping to bounce back.
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