Two-hundred-eighty eight Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra will go to polls on October 21, the Election Commission of India(ECI) announced on Saturday. The counting of votes will take place on October 24. Haryana too votes on the same date and the results will be declared on October 24.

Announcing the schedule of the Assembly polls in both the states, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said, "The Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra will be held on October 21 and the counting ofvotes will take place on October 24."

The notification for the elections will be issued onSeptember 27. The last date for filing nomination is October 4 while thescrutiny of the nomination papers will be done on October 5.  The last day for withdrawing nominations isset for October 7.

The 5-year term of the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtraexpires on November 9.

Maharashtra has 8.94 crore voters. 

In the 2014 Assembly election in Maharashtra, the BJP hadwon 122 seats and its ally Shiv Sena registered victory on 63 seats. TheCongress won 42 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 41 seats whileothers managed 20.

The Congress and the NCP had contested the 2014 Assemblypolls separately after sharing power for 15 years in the state.