Voting for the 288 seats of the Maharashtra Assembly will be held in a single phase today, November 20, i.e., Wednesday. A total of 158 parties are in the fray after the split between the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Out of which 6 major parties are contesting elections as part of two alliances.
Shinde group's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP are part of a grand coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While Congress, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Chandra Pawar) i.e. NCP (SP) are part of Mahavikas Aghadi.
There was a BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the last assembly elections. Then BJP won 105 and Shiv Sena 56 seats. While Congress got 44 and NCP 54 seats. BJP-Shiv Sena could have easily come to power, but the alliance fell apart.
After all the political upheaval, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Chief Minister on 23 November 2019 and Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, but both had to resign on 26 November before the majority test.
After this, on November 28, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress came to power. Uddhav Thackeray became the CM of Maharashtra.
About two and a half years later there was a rebellion in the Shiv Sena and a year later in the NCP and both parties split into four parties. It was on this political backdrop that the parties of Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray got the lead in the Lok Sabha elections.
29% candidates tainted, serious cases like murder-rape against 412 According to the Election Commission, a total of 4136 candidates from various parties, including independents, are in the fray. The Association for Democratic Reform (ADR) has prepared a report after examining the affidavits of 2201 of these candidates.
According to this, about 29 percent i.e. 629 candidates are from criminal background. Out of which serious cases like murder, kidnapping, rape have been registered against 412. 50 candidates are accused of crimes related to women.
38 percent of candidates are millionaires, only 204 women out of 2201 According to ADR, 829 i.e. 38 percent candidates are millionaires. In the last election this figure was 32%. They have an average wealth of 9.11 crores. While the average wealth of BJP candidates is Rs 54 crore. 26 candidates have declared their assets as nil.
At the same time about 31% i.e. 686 candidates have declared their age between 25 to 40 years. 317 (14%) are between 61 to 80 years, while 2 candidates are above 80 years. Out of these 2201 there are only 204 women candidates, which is about 9%.
Talking about the educational qualification of the candidates, 47% declared themselves to be between 5th and 12th. 74 candidates declared themselves as diploma holders, 58 literate and 10 illiterate.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
