BJP does not have regional leadership in Maharashtra: Milind Deora

Congress leader Milind Deora, who cast his vote for the Maharashtra Assembly polls here on Wednesday, lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the latter's aggressive campaigning clearly shows that the BJP does not have regional leadership in the state.

"The way Modiji campaigned for the Maharashtra Assembly polls clearly shows the BJP does not have regional leadership," he told the media in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, expressing confidence that BJP would perform splendidly in the assembly polls, compared it to the success of Bollywood film 'Dhoom'.

"See, today the people have voted with tremendous enthusiasm, even more enthusiasm than the Lok Sabha (election). It's an unparalleled scene as far as the state assembly elections are concerned. If the Lok Sabha election was 'Dhoom', this is 'Dhoom 2'," Javadekar told the media in Pune.

"People are voting for good governance, people are voting for change, people are voting for the decisive minded, in favour of BJP. And let me tell you that Maharashtra will have a single party rule, a single party majority rule for the first time," he added.

The BJP, which is contesting the Maharashtra Assembly polls alone this time after dumping its ally the Shiv Sena, expects that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity will enable it to emerge victorious in the state with a thumping majority.

There are 4,119 candidates in the electoral fray in Maharashtra.

The prominent candidates include former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and former ministers R R Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal of the NCP, Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Khadse, Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde of the BJP, Subhash Desai, Suresh Jain and Deepak Kesarkar of the Shiv Sena, former ministers Patangrao Kadam, Shivajirao Moghe and Rajendra Darda of the Congress and Bala Nandgaonkar of the MNS.

The voting, which began at 7 am amid tight security arrangements, will end at 6 pm. The counting of votes will take place on October 19.