Never in the past was there any Assembly election in Maharashtra fought at so many different levels as it is happening now. At macro-level, the 2024 Assembly polls will be a full-fledged war between the BJP-led MahaYuti and the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). But, in reality, five to six sets of battles to be waged on ground –---prominent being the ones between the BJP and the Congress, the Shinde Shiv Sena and Uddhav Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Ajit Pawar) and NCP (Sharad Pawar).

Not to be outdone, the BJP will slug it out with the non-Congress MVA constituents, while the Congress will lock horns with non-BJP allies at some places. Given the nature of rebellion witnessed in all political parties, there will  be what has come to be “friendly fights” fought between candidates of the candidates of the same political formation – being it the ruling MahaYuti or the Opposition MVA.  

With three days for the withdrawal of nominations for the November 20 State Assembly polls, the hither-to hazy political skies are clearing.  A cursory study of the lists of candidates released by the different political parties reveals that of the total 288 Assembly constituencies, the BJP will be involved in a direct fight with the Congress in 70 to 75 constituencies, while the Shinde Shiv Sena will slug it out with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena in as many as 39 seats.  The feuding NCPs – one led by Ajit Pawar and another headed by Sharad Pawar himself – will take on each other in 36 constituencies.

Interestingly enough, the main battleground for the BJP vs Congress fights will be Vidarbha region, where the two parties will have a direct battle on hand in at least 30 constituencies.  Those involved in direct fights in Vidarbha will include deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP President Chandrashekar Bawankule, senior BJP  minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar and state Congress President Nana Patole.

Fadnavis of the BJP is pitted against Prafulla Gudadhe-Patil of the Congress in home constituency of Nagpur South West, Bawankule – an OBC leader -- is involved in a stiff fight with Congress’ Suresh Bhoyar, a former President of the Nagpur Zila Panchayat.

In Sakoli of Bhandara district, Patole is facing Avinash Brahmankar of  the BJP, while Wadettiwar is seeking re-election from Brahmapuri in Chandrapur district and is pitted against Krishnalal Sahare of the BJP.  BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who was defeated in the recent Lok Sabha polls, is desperately trying to retain his Ballarpur seat against Congress candidate Santosh Rawat.

Elsewhere in Karad south constituency of western Maharashtra,  In Karad South, Prithviraj Chavan, a former chief minister and former Minister of State in PMO under the Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government,  will take on Atul Bhosale of the BJP, while the BJP’s controversial Speaker Rahul Narwekar is up against Heera Devasi of the Congress in Colaba constituency in Mumbai.

Of the 39 direct contests between the two feuding Shiv Sena, a majority will be witnessed in Mumbai-Konkan coastal belt and Marathwada region.

Both Shinde Sena and Uddhav Sena consider Mumbai, its suburbs which come under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and the neighbouring coastal Konkan region as strong-holds. The direct fights being witnessed in as many as 27 seats in this belt will decide which of the two Senas is the “real” Sena. Similarly, the two Sena are in for close contests in Marathwada (11), Vidarbha (6), North Maharashtra (5) and Western Maharashtra (4).

The most prominent among the Sena Vs Sena contests is in Kopri-Panchpakhadi in Thane city, where chief minister Eknath Shinde is trying to prove that he is the real inheritor of the legacy of late Shiv Sena strong man Anand Dighe.  The  Sena, which is one of the constituents of the MVA, this battle interesting by putting up late Dight’s nephew Kedar Dighe against Shinde.

The eleven seats in Mumbai where there will be direct flights between Shinde Sena and Uddhave Sena are:  Mahim, Byculla, Worli, Andheri East, Jogeshwari East, Dindoshi, Magathane, Bhandup West, Vikhroli, Kurla and Chembur.

Similarly, the nine seats in MMR where it will be Sena Vs Sena contest are  Kopri-Panchpakhadi, Owla-Majiwada, Kalyan Rural, Kalyan West, Bhiwandi Rural, Ambernath, Palghar, Karjat and Alibaug.

The seven seats in Konkan region where the two warring Senas are engaged in bitter fights are:   Mahad, Dapoli, Guhagar, Ratnagiri, Rajapur, Kudal, Sawantwadi.

The 11 Marathwada seats , where there will be direct fights will be: Aurangabad Central, Aurangabad West, Vaijapur, Paithan, Kannada, Sillod, Parbhani, Kalamnuri, Osmanabad, Paranda, Umarga.  The six Vidarbha seats the Senas are fighting against each other are - Ramtek, Balapur, Daryapur, Digras, Mehekar and Buldhana.  In north Maharashtra, the Shinde Sena it taking Uddhav Sena head-on in six seats: Newasa, Nandgaon, Malegaon Outer, Pachora, Chopada, while it is fighting the rival Sena in four seats of  Western Maharashtra - Sangola, Barshi, Radhanagari and Patan. Equally fierce is going the Pawar Vs Pawar contests in the Assembly polls,  Of the 36 seats where the NCP (Ajit Pawar) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) are fighting a battle of survival,  they are fighting neck-to neck battles in 15 constituencies of the sugar-rich western Maharashtra.

The mother of all battles in Maharashtra is being witnessed in Pawars’ home constituency of Baramati, where deputy chief minister and NCP (AP) Ajit Pawar is locked in a family war against his brother Shriniwas Pawar’s son Yugendra Pawar of the NCP (SP) . The contest being seen here is a battle between Ajit Pawar and his 83-yer-old uncle Sharad Pawar who is trying to avenge the betrayal indulged in by the former who vertically split the united NCP  and joined the BJP-led MahaYuti government in July 2023.

The Baramati Assembly contest comes in the backdrop of the fact that in the recent Lok Sabha polls, Supriya ---a sitting MP and daughter of NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar -- defeated Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra by a margin of 1.58 lakh votes

While western Maharashtra accounts for a maximum NCP vs NCP (SP) clashes (15), similar contests are being witnessed in north Maharashtra (7), Marathwada (5), Vidarbha (4), Mumbai (1), larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (2) and Konkan (2).

The western Maharashtra seats are Baramati, Ambegaon, Indapur, Kagal, Hadapsar, Vadgaon Sheri, Islampur, Tasgaon Kavathe Mahankali, Shirur, Phaltan, Mohol, Pimpri, Junnar, Wai and Chandgad, while the two feuding NCPs are trying to outbeat each other in constituencies of north Maharashtra like Ahmednagar City, Akole, Parner, Kopargaon, Yeola, Dindori and Sinner.

The five Marathwada seats, where the two NCPs are pitted against each other, are Basmath, Udgir, Parli, Majalgaon and Ahmedpur.  The four NCP Vs NCP seats in Vidarbha seats are Aheri, Tumsar, Morshi and Pusad, while the two Konkan seats are Chiplun and Shrivardhan.

In Mumbai, the lone NCP Vs NCP seat is Anushakti Nagar involving Sana Malik and Fahad Ahmed and in the larger MMR the two seats where the two parties are fighting against each other are: Mumbra-Kalwa and Shahpur.