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Maharashtra Assembly Election 2019: Curtains drawn on campaign, nearly 9 crore voters to elect 288 MLAs on Oct 21

8,98,39,600 voters, 3237 candidates for 288 seats.

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The campaigning for Maharashtra assembly elections came to an end on Saturday with voting scheduled to take place in 288 constituencies of the state on October 21. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were among the top leaders who campaigned in Maharashtra where abrogation of Article 370 and the slowing economy were among the top issues. 

Fadnavis alone held nearly 225 public rallies before and after the model code of conduct came into effect following the Election Commission of India's announcement of poll schedule on September 21. Fadnavis had held 160 rallies as part of his 'Mahajanadesh Yatra' which he undertook as part of his statewide tour while 65 rallies by him were held after the poll announcement. 

The second BJP leader on the list is Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who held 35 rallies during the campaign. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held 9 political rallies while BJP president addressed 10 rallies.

The top BJP leadership including Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah aggressively campaigned on their move to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and raised Opposition's questioning of the move. 

The BJP is contesting the state polls in an alliance - Mahayuti - with Shiv Sena and some other smaller allies. The BJP has fielded candidates on 150 seats, Sena is contesting 124 seats while 14 seats have gone to smaller allies including RPI-A.

As for Shiv Sena, this is the first time that a member of the Thackeray family is contesting an election. Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray, is contesting from Worli assembly constituency in Mumbai. 

The ruling alliance's main adversary is "maha-aghadi", led by the Congress and the NCP. The Congress has fielded 147 candidates and the ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 121.

The opposition's campaign never really gained momentum with Rahul Gandhi and Sharad Pawar addressing some odd number of rallies. The Congress-NCP campaign was mostly led by the candidates and any fighting chance of the alliance depends on the strength of the local campaign. 

In the few rallies addressed by Rahul Gandhi, he highlighted issues like the economic slowdown, unemployment, demonetisation exercise and GST rollout. 

Total voters in Maharashtra are 8,98,39,600 - 4,28,43,635 women and 4,68,75,750 men - who are eligible to cast their votes on October 21 to elect 288 new members of the new assembly. There are a total of 3237 candidates, including 235 women, in the fray.

The bypoll for Satara Lok Sabha constituency, which was won by the NCP in the general elections in May, will also be held on October 21. Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendant of Shivaji Maharaj, who won on the NCP ticket, had later quit the party to join the BJP. While the BJP has fielded Bhosale for the bypoll, the NCP has placed its bets on Shriniwas Patil.

The Election Commission has deployed 6.5 lakh polling staff for the election which will be held across 96,661 polling booths. A total of 1,35,021 VVPAT machines will be used in the election across 288 assembly constituency.  

The counting of votes for all seats will be held on October 24.

In 2014 elections which the BJP and Shiv Sena contested separately, the two parties won 122 and 63 seats, respectively. The Congress and the NCP - who fought the election together - won 42 and 41 seats, respectively. 

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