In the early hours of Wednesday came a news that is likely to become a major point of discussion in political circles.

Gautam Adani, who heads Indian conglomerate Adani Group, has been indicted in New York over his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

US prosecutors said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, and develop India’s largest solar power plant project.

Prosecutors also said the Adanis and another executive at Adani Green Energy, former CEO Vineet Jain, raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds by hiding their corruption from lenders and investors.

Ever since the Hindenburg report allegations, the Congress, particularly in election campaigning, has been targeting Adani over his alleged links with the BJP government. Most recently, an alleged election-related 2019 meeting in Maharashtra pertaining to Adani set off a major conversation in the poll-bound state.

The countdown has begun – and the initial numbers are in.

Maharashtra remains close in these numbers, with predictions varying widely, highlighting the uncertainty. Estimates for the ruling Mahayuti range from 125 to 195, and MVA from 69 to 150.

Congress in-charge for Maharashtra, Ramesh Chennithala, expressed confidence in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) forming the government in Maharashtra. He said: “The people in the state are against the current governments at both the state and central levels. Exit polls do not reflect the ground reality.

The pollsters predict a close fight between JMM-led INDIA and NDA alliance in Jharkhand. They put the BJP tally in the range of 32-47, while the JMM number was between 25-59.

In 2019, the exit polls had missed the mark in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, predicting a landslide win for the then BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, but accurately predicted that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance would make the most of then ruling BJP’s anti-incumbency and coming to power.

In Maharashtra, an average of seven exit polls put the BJP-led NDA’s tally at 207, well clear of the 145-seat majority mark in the Assembly, and the Congress-NCP alliance’s tally at 65, with the remaining 16 seats predicted to go to Independents and other parties.

The NDA ended up with 161 seats, but was unable to form a government after the alliance could not reach a power-sharing agreement. The Shiv Sena then joined forces with the Congress and NCP, whose combined tally was 98, to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

In Jharkhand, pollsters fared significantly better in 2019. An average of three polls predicted the JMM-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance would win 41 of the state’s 81 seats, putting the combine right at the majority mark. The JMM-led alliance ended up slightly outperforming the exit polls with wins in 47 seats, while the BJP won 25, the AJSUP two, and the JVM three. Without alliances with the AJSUP and JVM, the BJP fell well short of a majority and was ousted by the Hemant Soren-led coalition.

A new war of words has begun over alleged misappropriation of bitcoins from a 2018 cryptocurrency fraud case to fund poll campaigns.

The charges against NCP(SP) leader Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole were levelled by former IPS officer Ravindranath Patil on Tuesday, and amplified by BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi at a late night press conference in Delhi on the eve of polling.

Both Sule and Patole have denied the allegations, and filed complaints with the EC. Patil said he has written to the EC and sought a probe in the matter. The allegations pertain to an investigation carried out by the Pune police department’s cyber crime cell into a multi-crore cryptocurrency ponzi scheme in 2018. The accused were alleged to have defrauded people across the country by promising returns on cryptocurrency investments.

– With agency inputs

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