Elections 2019 LIVE: 65% Haryana turnout, 63% in Maharashtra

Polling is being on Monday to elect Maharashtra and Haryana assemblies with the BJP and its allies seeking to retain power in the two states on the back of the recent Lok Sabha polls victory, while the opposition is hoping to turn the tide by taking advantage of any anti-incumbency. 

Maharashtra Assembly polls:

In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the NCP, a total of 8,98,39,600 people, including 4,28,43,635 women, are eligible to vote. As many as 3,237 candidates, including 235 women, are contesting in 288 seats and 96,661 polling booths are in place with 6.5 lakh staff for the voting exercise.

Haryana Assembly polls:

The ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling JJP for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana which has over 1.83 crore voters, including 85 lakh women and 252 transgenders, while 19,578 polling stations have been set up.

Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. Tight security arrangements have been made with deployment of more than three lakh personnel from state police and central forces in Maharashtra, while over 75,000 security personnel have been mobilised in Haryana. Counting of votes will be on October 24. The high-voltage electioneering by the BJP saw participation of a galaxy of leaders led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, as it continued to aggressively raise the nationalism plank by focusing on scrapping of Article 370 provisions on special status to Jammu and Kashmir and targeted the opposition on national security and corruption.

Political scenario in Maharashtra

The opposition tried to corner the BJP governments at the Centre and in the states on the handling of the economy with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blaming the ruling party for the economic slowdown and unemployment and highlighting issues like "failure" of demonetisation and GST rollout. The BJP, which is seeking a second straight term under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, is contesting 164 seats, which include candidates of smaller allies contesting on its lotus symbol, while Sena has fielded candidates on 126 seats. On the other hand, the Congress and the NCP are contesting on equal number of seats. 

Among other parties, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by Raj Thackeray, has fielded 101 candidates, the CPI 16, the CPM 8. The BSP has fielded candidates in 262 constituencies. A total of 1400 Independents are also in the poll arena. The opposition campaign was, however, lacklusture as both the Congress and the NCP were plagued by infighting and desertions in the run-up to the polls. The bypoll for Satara Lok Sabha constituency will also be held on October 21. Former NCP leader and sitting MP Udayanraje Bhosale is in the fray from the seat on a BJP ticket against Shriniwas Patil of the Congress-NCP combine.

The campaign in Maharashtra was marked by personal attacks and sharp exchange of barbs between the chief minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who hit the hustings at the age of 79 and addressed a number of rallies. However, the Congress and NCP failed to hold even a single joint rally.

While Modi addressed nine rallies across the state, Rahul Gandhi spoke at six public meetings. The campaign also saw an undertone of jostling for supremacy between the BJP and the Sena, which had fought the last assembly elections separately, winning 122 and 63 seats respectively. The Congress had bagged 42 and the NCP 41 seats. In the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-Sena alliance won 41 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, while the Congress won one and NCP four seats.

Prominent candidates in the fray are Chief Minister Fadnavis and his predecessors from Congress, Ashok Chavan, who is in fray from Bhokar in Nanded district, and Prithviraj Chavan seeking re-election from Karad South in Satara district. Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray, is contesting from Worli in Mumbai. The 29-year-old is the first from the Thackeray family to make debut in electoral politics.

Political scenario in Haryana

In Haryana,  the Congress is hoping to make a comeback following a change in guard in the state, while the BJP led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has set a target of winning 75 seats out of 90 in which 1,169 candidates of various political outfits are contesting. Currently, the BJP has 48 members in state assembly and had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the recent election. The Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), a breakaway faction of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), is also hoping for an improvement in its prospects following the Lok Sabha debacle. The party had emerged on the scene following a feud in the Chautala clan in Decamber last year.

The BSP, AAP, INLD-SAD combine, Swaraj India and the Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP) have thrown their hat into the ring, though none of them is fighting on all 90 seats. Prominent amongst those in the contest are Chief Minister Khattar (Karnal), former chief minister and Congress Legislative Party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), Randeep Singh Surjewala (Kaithal), Kiran Choudhary (Tosham) and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Adampur) and JJP's Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan).

The BJP has fielded three sportspersons -- Babita Phogat (Dadri), Yogeshwar Dutt (Baroda in Sonipat) and Sandeep Singh (Pehowa) -- besides TikTok star Sonali Phogat (Adampur). While Prime Minister Modi addressed seven rallies in the state, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed two election meetings.

In the 2014 assembly polls, the BJP for the first time came to power in Haryana winning 47 seats. It won the Jind bypolls earlier this year, taking its total strength in the state assembly to 48. The INLD had 19 MLAs while the Congress has 17 legislators. The BSP and the SAD had bagged one seat each in the last polls while five were Independents.

Former deputy CM of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party leader speaks to the media after voting. He and his uncle NCP supremo Sharad Pawar were recently named in the ECIR (FIR) filed by the ED in the MSCB scam. Watch his comment on the polls below:

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat speaks to media in Nagpur:  

Wrestler-turned-politician & BJP candidate from Dadri, Babita Phogat at polling booth in Haryana: 

NCP leader Ajit Pawar speaks to media after voting in the #MaharashtraAssemblyPolls 

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari addresses media after exercising his franchise.   

Union Minister Piyush Goyal in Mumbai's Malabar Hill speaks to media during Maharashtra elections 

NCP's Supriya Sule speaks to media after casting her vote in Baramati.

Yogeshwar Dutt, Olympic Medallist & BJP candidate from Baroda casts his vote

Wrestlers Babita Phogat, Geeta Phogat&their family cast their vote at a polling booth in Balali village in Charkhi Dadri constituency. Babita Phogat is contesting on BJP ticket from here against Congress candidate Nirpender Singh Sangwan& JJP candidate Satpal Sangwan

Actor & BJP MP from Gorakhpur (UP) Ravi Kishan & actress Padmini Kolhapure cast their votes at polling booths in Mumbai's Goregaon & Andheri (West) constituency 

NCP leader Praful Patel & his wife Varsha cast their votes at a polling booth in Gondia assembly constituency 

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar addresses media after casting his vote in the Maharashtra elections

Haryana polls: Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar comes on a cycle to cast his vote 

 Milind Deora urges young voters to come out and cast their votes in Maharashtra elections

Haryana CM ML Khattar addresses media on casting his vote in Karnal 

Maharashtra Elections: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis arrives at a poll station to cast his vote.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis cast his vote

Ritesh Deshmukh & Genelia D'Souza & family cast their votes at a polling booth in Latur

Actor Madhuri Dixit leaves after casting her vote at a polling booth in Bandra(West)

Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray, wife Rashmi and sons Aditya and Tejas, after casting their vote in Bandra(East)

Haryana polls: CM Khattar rides a cycle to cast vote

Senior Congress leader & former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda casts his vote at a polling booth in Rohtak. Speaking to the media on Monday as voting commenced in Haryana, former Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda stated that the real contest was only between Congress and BJP, and that JPP is not a contest.

As the assembly polls in Maharashtra is underway, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena‎ chief Raj Thackeray casts his vote at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. In the assembly polls, Thackeray has jumped into the poll fray and has fielded candidates in 104 of the 288 assembly seats.

With Maharashtra assembly polls underway, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray, along with Shiv Sena's Worli candidate Aaditya Thackeray turned up at a poll booth in Bandra. After casting his vote in Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief urged people to do the same for the sake of Maharashtra's bright future saying, "I just cast my vote along with my family. I would like to urge people to vote because it is not just for you, but the bright future of Maharashtra." 

As the assembly elections in Maharashtra are underway, Union Minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani reached at a polling booth in Mumbai and exercised her franchise. As Irani was interacting with media, she interacted with a 93-year-old former army man, fondly called Khanna uncle.

Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan were spotted at a polling booth in Mumbai, voting for the Maharashtra Assembly elections on Monday. As many as 3,237 candidates, including 235 women, are contesting in 288 Assembly seats of the state. Polling was underway since 7 am and will end at 6 pm

Popular Bollywood singer and music composer Kailash Kher on Monday cast his vote in Mumbai and urged his fellow citizens to vote. "We live in a democracy and voting is important. We get angry about issues but when the day comes to choose a representative, we should not be lazy," said Kher showing his inked finger. He then sang a special song.

Deepika Padukone after casting her vote at a polling booth in Bandra (West), Mumbai. She was the main attraction at the opening ceremony of the 21st MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, recently. 

Popular Bollywood singer and music composer Kailash Kher on Monday cast his vote in Mumbai and urged his fellow citizens to vote. "We live in a democracy and voting is important. We get angry about issues but when the day comes to choose a representative, we should not be lazy," said Kher donning his inked finger.

With Haryana polls, underway, Congress' de facto Chief Minister candidate, Bhupinder Singh Hooda put to display his callous behaviour by breaking the queue to cast his vote. In a blatant display of the VVIP culture, Hooda could be seen pushing women and elderly people aside to make his way to the polling booth.  

The Poklok Kamrang Assembly constituency witnessed the oldest voter Ms Sumitra Rai. The 107-year-old woman cast her vote at the Government Secondary School in Kamrang Polling Station on Monday. The polling team at the station also felicitated the elderly woman.

Actor Arjun Kapoor says people still have time to come out and vote. He appeals to people to exercise their right. Speaking to the media after voting, he said: "I would like to be the part of the process and choose people who will form the government"

Jaya Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan leave after casting their vote at a polling booth in Juhu, Mumbai.

As voting is underway for the Maharashtra assembly, Shiv Sena chief's and candidate from Worli constituency, Aaditya Thackeray expressed his hope that people will come out and vote in large numbers. He said that Shiv Sena members will serve people in whatever role people decide for them. Refusing to speak about the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance or NCP Congress alliance, Aaditya said that due to the Model Code of Conduct, he will not say anything that may seem like campaigning or that may be a political statement.

While Maharashtra has been seeing intermittent showers in the past week, that has not stopped the Election Commission of India (ECI) from facilitating people to vote in the state Assembly polls on Monday. In a heartwarming gesture, voters in a polling booth in Kambleshwar village were facilitated to approach their rain-drenched polling booths in an innovative way.