Intensely fought campaign comes to an end

Campaigning for Assembly elections in Maharashtra (288 seats) and Haryana (90 seats) came to an end on Monday. While polling in the two states is scheduled for Wednesday, counting of votes will be done on Sunday and the results declared the same evening.

Leaders across political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Indian National Lok Dal president Om Prakash Chautala (who had to return to jail a day before campaigning stopped for violating his conditions for bail), Nationalist Congress party chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena head Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and Bharatiya Janata Party president (BJP) Amit Shah, campaigned for their respective parties. During the campaigning in Haryana, Modi and other BJP leaders raised the issue of corruption, especially alleged irregularities in a land deal between realty major DLF and Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law.

The campaigning in Maharashtra saw a number of defections. One instance was in Aurangabad, where Kishan Tanwani was on his way to the election commission office to support the candidature of the Sena's Pradip Jaiswal. Now, Tanwani is the BJP's candidate from Aurangabad. In Beed, the Shiv Sena isn't opposing the BJP's Pankaja Munde, though it is fighting the party in other areas. The two Thackeray cousins, who parted ways earlier, are collaborating in some areas.