On Wednesday, all 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will vote in a single phase, while the remaining 38 of 81 seats in Jharkhand will do so. The first phase of polling happened in Jharkhand on November 13.

While Maharashtra has 29 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and 25 for Scheduled Tribes (ST), among Jharkhand’s second phase seats are eight seats kept for STs and three for SCs.

The Maharashtra contest will see the ruling Mahayuti – comprising the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – engage in a rematch of the Lok Sabha polls. In the general elections held earlier this year, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance’s Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) had emerged ahead of the Mahayuti.

The Lok Sabha setback was the second electoral dent for the BJP in Maharashtra after the 2019 Assembly polls ended in a hung House – the BJP won 105 seats and a 25.75% vote share, followed by the Shiv Sena at 56 seats and 16.41%, the NCP at 54 and 16.71%, and the Congress at 44 and 15.87%. Smaller parties and Independents won the remaining 29 seats.

In the Jharkhand seats voting in the second phase, concentrated in the Santhal Pargana and North Chotanagpur regions, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance had led in the 2019 Assembly elections en route to coming to power under Hemant Soren.

The JMM won 13 of the second phase seats in 2019, followed by the allies Congress at eight and the CPI(ML)L at one. The BJP won 12 seats, its now ally All Jharkhand Students’ Union Party (AJSUP) won two, and the erstwhile Babulal Marandi-led Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) that merged with the BJP in 2020, won another two seats.

Bypolls for 15 Assembly seats across Kerala (1), Punjab (4), Uttar Pradesh (9) and Uttarakhand (1) will also be held on Wednesday.

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce on Wednesday its order on Jammu and Kashmir Lok Sabha member Engineer Rashid’s regular bail application in a terror-funding case.

Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh, who was scheduled to pass order on Tuesday, deferred the matter till November 20.

The judge is also scheduled to decide on Wednesday whether the case against Rashid be transferred to the designated MP/MLA court. The judge had earlier noted that the case could go to a special court meant to try lawmakers, now that Rashid.

Rashid is an MP from Baramulla.

The judge had reserved the bail order in the case, saying he would first consider the issue of jurisdiction and whether or not to transfer the case to a special court.

Rashid had surrendered before the Tihar jail authorities on October 28, after the completion of his interim bail period.

The newly elected MP has been lodged in Tihar jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the 2017 terror funding case.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will begin his three-day visit to Laos on Wednesday where he will attend a meeting of a grouping comprising 10-nation ASEAN and some of its dialogue partners that is expected to deliberate on evolving regional security situation.

Singh is likely to present India’s position on dealing with major security challenges facing the region at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), sources said.

ADMM-Plus is a platform comprising 10-nation ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its eight dialogue partners — India, China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Guyana on Wednesday, the last leg of his three-nation tour, thus becoming the first Indian PM in 56 years to visit the South American nation.

Before Guyana, the PM had visited Nigeria on a two-day tour where he was awarded the country’s second-highest civilian honour and then proceeded to Brazil for the G20 Summit.

– With PTI inputs