The All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Thursday evening announced regional leaders as Election in-charges for the upcoming Maharashtra elections. The committee has divided the state into five regions and has appointed leaders for each region.

Five regional Election in-charge

The AICC release stated that Mukul Wasnik will lead in Vidharbha, Avinash Pandey will lead in Mumbai, Rajini Patil will lead in Western and Konkan regions, R.C. Khuntia will lead in Northern Maharashtra and Rajeev Satav will lead in Marathwada region. Avinash Pandey will also be in charge of the 'Election Control Room'. The statement also said that these regional heads will have Secretaries attached with them. The statement was signed by AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal. 

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The Maharashtra Assembly polls are likely to be conducted in October with the Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora on Thursday stating that the announcement will be made at an appropriate time in New Delhi. The CEC also stated that the commission will consider Diwali holidays before finalizing the dates. The Election Commission also plans to hold a drive to increase turnout and to raise awareness among first-time voters in the state. The term for the Maharashtra Assembly ends on November 9. Maharashtra is likely to go to polls with Haryana, since the latter's assembly term ends on November 2. CEC also mentioned that the dates for Jharkhand polls will be announced later since the Assembly still has three months left.

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Re-kindled alliance

The Indian National Congress (INC) will rekindle their alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to fight the Maharashtra polls. The two parties had early this week decided that they will contest 125 seats each, and will give 38 seats to smaller allies from across the state. The two parties had contested the 2014 elections separately and INC won 42 seats whereas the NCP won 41 seats. The two had previously been allies for 15 years. 

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Congress will be hoping to make a strong return to the state they have been dominating in the past. Maharashtra had been lead by a Congress CM from 1999 to 2014. This dominance came to an end when BJP swept the polls in 2014 by winning 122 seats and named Devendra Fadnavis as the CM. 

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