Even as all eyes remain fixed on Haryana for the next few days — it goes to polls on October 5 — the action in Maharashtra has picked up pace. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has confirmed that the state elections will be held before November 26, when the current Assembly’s term ends. On Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will make his second visit to the state in as many weeks to review poll preparations in Mumbai, Thane, and the Konkan region. For the party, seat-sharing talks with allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are likely to prove as difficult, if not more, as it was before the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP, it is learnt, has decided that each party will retain their sitting constituencies, which means 105 seats at least for it, 40 for the Sena, and 41 for the NCP. This leaves 102 of the 288 total seats still undecided. Senior NCP leader and state minister Chhagan Bhujbal has said his party deserves 85-90 seats having settled for less during the parliamentary elections on the assurance that it would be compensated during the state polls. But whether the BJP agrees is highly doubtful given Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’s statement last week that low vote transfer from Ajit Pawar’s party was one of the reasons for the Mahayuti alliance’s poor show in the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP is said to be pushing for at least 155 to 160 seats as anything less may cause unrest within its state unit. The Sena, meanwhile, is trying to assert itself in Mumbai, Thane, and Konkan, demanding 36 and 24 constituencies respectively in the first two regions. That there was a problem in the Mahayuti before the Lok Sabha polls was apparent when the seat-sharing talks dragged on for months and that uncertainty percolated down to the grassroots. The BJP, rattled by the Maharastra reversal, will be looking to avoid another repeat this time too, with a precious few weeks left before the campaign hits top gear. Apart from seat-sharing, allies, and poll preparation, Shah may also find the Fadnavis question on his plate during the visit. As Liz Mathew reported last week, there were two strands of thought within the party. While one argues that the Deputy CM should be moved to Delhi in an organisational capacity, the other section believes removing its most popular face in the state will send a wrong signal ahead of the election. Recommended reading: Rocky Maharashtra polls ahead, BJP in two minds over Devendra Fadnavis Will Modi again attack Congress over ‘corruption’? There are three more days of campaigning left in Haryana and to give the party a leg-up in the final stretch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address his fourth election rally in the state. The public meeting in Palwal, about 80 km from Delhi, is scheduled to start around 4 pm. In his speeches till now, the PM has focussed on alleged corruption during Congress rule — he has been bringing up “kharchi, parchi” — and the Opposition party's treatment of Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) during its time in power, the latter in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between the Congress’s senior leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Jat) and Kumari Selja (Dalit). On Tuesday, expect more of the same from the PM. The Congress too appears to have realised that it is not as comfortably ahead as it may have believed and needs to present a united front. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had largely been absent from the Haryana campaign but has embarked on a yatra, starting Monday, that will continue till Thursday. On October 1, Gandhi will hold the yatra from Bahadurgarh, covering the Assembly seats that are part of the Rohtak and Sonipat Lok Sabha constituencies. Gandhi will be accompanied by Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda and other senior Congress leaders. Recommended reading: Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra push before Haryana wrap — 5 reasons why
