My Vote Counts!!! Go Out and Vote today!!!

13th Oct 2009, Maharashtra Assembly elections. Along with Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh also go to polls. I just came back from the polling booth adoring the ink mark made on my left index finger. It was the second time I voted. And the novelty of it is still there.

The effort is colossal, even monumental. Electioneering in itself is noting less than a festival in India.

Consider the statistics for the assembly elections in Maharashtra alone:
No of Districts: 35
No of Assembly Seats: 288
No of Polling booths: 84136
No of candidates: 3559
No of voters: 75811245
(source: http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/oct/12/slide-show-1-three-states-ready-for-polls.htm)

Isn't this monumental? And these are only the assembly elections!!!! The first test of popularity for the parties after the Lok Sabha elections.

It is a very interesting mix this time around. Both the Cong-NCP combine and the BJP-Shiv Sena to some extent have been rocked by rebels. The reason being discontent with fielding candidates who are descendants of senior party leaders. Notable being the President Prathibha Patil's son (from the Congress) and ofcourse the extended Munde family (for the BJP). However in all the melee one party stands notably alone without any cadre issues or discontent and that is the MNS!!!

MNS broke the back of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra during the last Lok Sabha polls. Though they didn't manage to return any MP's they did eat up the vote share of the Saffron alliance, helping the Cong-NCP candidates.

MNS has a good chance to win seats to the assembly and it is a possibility that we will have a 3 way tiff to form the govt (Cong-NCP, BJP-Shiv Sena and the MNS). Though MNS will not be able to go alone, it is going to be a decisive cog in the wheel!!!! Raj by all means will be the King Maker this time around.

Will MNS return to the Saffron fold? or will MNS side with the Cong-NCP? or will MNS give outside support and sit out of the govt? Or will the Cong-NCP against all odds sweep the polls like they did at the Centre?

The answers to all these questions are in MY SINGLE VOTE!!! and for that I feel important!!!!

GO OUT and VOTE