Voting will take place on November 20 in Maharashtra and on November 13 and 20 in Jharkhand as the two states go for general assembly elections. The results will be announced on November 23. The Election Commission of India also announced bye-elections in 48 assembly constituencies and 2 Lok Sabha seats.

After the completion of Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir assembly elections, all eyes are on Maharashtra. With several factions of various parties in different alliances fighting for 288 seats, it is going to be a test case for the BJP.

The term of the Maharashtra assembly ends on November 26. Currently, the state is ruled by the Mahayuti government, led by chief minister Eknath Shinde. The ruling alliance includes the BJP, Shiv Sena-Eknath Shinde, and NCP-Ajit Pawar. The main opposition alliance, Maha Vikas Aghadi, has Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), NCP (Sharad Pawar) and Congress. This will be the first state-level election after the split in the two major state parties, Shiv sena and NCP.

In Jharkhand, the term of the Assembly will end on January 5, 2025. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress alliance is in power, with Hemant Soren serving as the chief minister. In this tribal-dominated state, 43 constituencies will go to polls in Phase 1 and the remaining 38 in Phase 2.

The ECI also announced bye-elections to the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala (vacated after Rahul Gandhi’s resignation) and the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra (following the death of Chavan Vasantrao Balwantrao).

Nanded and Kedarnath assembly constituency of Uttarakhand will vote on November 20, while all the other bye-elections will be held on November 13. The results will be declared on November 23.

In his press briefing in New Delhi on Tuesday, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that India is setting gold standards in elections.  "Before starting the briefing, I would like to congratulate all voters from Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir for participating in big numbers. India is setting records in every election. We are setting a new gold standard.”

Kumar said that participation is increasing with each election, incidents of violence are decreasing and record seizures are being made. He added that voters have shown strong confidence in the process by actively participating.

He, however, also flagged urban voter apathy and low polling in urban centres of Mumbai and Pune and said that elections in both the states have been kept on mid-week so that more people vote.