Maharashtra election 2024 schedule: Voting date, exit polls and results

Voting for all 288 seats of the Maharashtra legislative assembly will be held in a single phase.

With the term of the Maharashtra assembly set to end on November 26, the state is gearing up for the assembly polls this week. Voting for all 288 seats of the Maharashtra legislative assembly will be held in a single phase.

Of the 288 seats, 234 come under general category, 29 are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and 25 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST). According to reports, as many as 4,140 candidates are in the fray. "We received 7,078 valid nomination forms for 288 seats. Of these, 2,938 candidates have withdrawn nominations, leaving 4,140 in the fray," the state chief electoral office official was quoted as saying in a PTI report

A look at key events

Date of issue of Gazette notification: October 22, 2024
Last date for making nominations: October 29, 2024
Date for scrutiny of nominations: October 30, 2024
Last date for withdrawal of nominations: November 4, 2024
Poll day: November 20, 2024Counting date: November 23, 2024

Which are the main parties?

The election is expected to see an intense battle between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi. In the Mahayuti alliance, the BJP is contesting the highest number of seats (148) among all the parties, followed by the Congress, which has nominated candidates for 103 seats. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena is contesting for 80 seats, while his deputy Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party will contest 53 seats.

Meanwhile, in the MVA, the Congress has nominated candidates for 103 seats, followed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) with 89 seats and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) with 87. The remaining six seats were given to other allies of the MVA.

Total number of voters

A total of 47,392 centenarians are among the more than 9.7 crore citizens who are eligible to vote, according to Election Commission data. There are 22,22,704 voters in the age group of 18-19 years, while the number of centenarians, those aged 100 and above (oldest at 109), stood at 47,392. The state has 9,70,25,119 registered voters – 5,00,22,739 men, 4,69,96,279 women and 6,101 of the third gender.

For the first time, the Election Commission of India appointed the BMC municipal commissioner as the district election officer for both districts in the city.

When is the election date and time?

All the 288 assembly seats in the state will go into polls in a single phase on November 20. Polling will begin from 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. On the day of voting, there will be a dry day in Mumbai and other cities of Maharashtra.

When to watch exit polls?

The exit poll predictions will be announced soon, following the completion of the voting on November 20. As per the Election Commission of India guidelines, exit poll predictions can be aired after 6.30 pm on the same day.

When is the Maharashtra election result?

Votes will be counted on November 23.