Former UP Governor Ram Naik casts his vote for Maharashtra Assembly elections

Maharashtra Assembly Elections: Ram Naik, a BJP politician and former governor of Uttar Pradesh, voted in Wednesday’s Maharashtra Assembly elections. Following his vote, Naik declared that Vidya Thakur, the BJP contender, will win the Goregaon seat. “In every election, I cast my ballot. I believe that Vidya Thakur, the BJP candidate, would win from here based on the mood of the last several months,” he remarked.

Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Sameer Desai is running against incumbent BJP MLA Vidya Thakur for the Goregaon seat. Both the Shiv Sena and the BJP have seen the seat as a stronghold.

In the meanwhile, voting in the Maharashtra assembly elections’ single phase started at 7 am on Wednesday and will end at 6 pm. There are 288 assembly seats that are holding polls.

2,086 independent candidates are among the 4,136 candidates running in the elections. The NCP is running for 59 seats, the Shiv Sena for 81, and the BJP for 149. There are 101 candidates from the Congress, 95 from the Shiv Sena (UBT), and 86 from the NCP (Sharad Pawar group). In addition to other minor parties, the BSP is running for 237 seats. There are around 9.7 crore registered voters in the state.

Changing coalitions, ideological disputes, intricate caste relationships, and emotive appeals have all been features of the Maharashtra Assembly’s power struggle. The main competition is between the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition.

The Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar group) make up the opposition MVA, while the BJP, Shiv Sena, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) make up the governing BJP-led Mahayuti coalition.

The BJP won 105 seats, the Shiv Sena 56, and the Congress 44 in the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections. The Congress secured 42 seats, the Shiv Sena 63, and the BJP 122 in 2014.