NEW DELHI: The first state elections after the Modi government’s return to office in Lok Sabha polls will be held in Maharashtra and Haryana on October 21 with BJP as front-runner in the face of a weakened opposition and the party hoping to capitalise on decisions like the nullification of Article 370.The situation for the opposition is particularly fragmented in Haryana where the Chautala family is split into warring factions and Congress has barely managed an in-house truce by giving former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda the pole position, reposing hope in his skills as a political organiser.In Maharashtra, Congress and NCP have sealed seat-sharing but both parties are hit by significant desertions, particularly from the ranks of influential Maratha leaders who have been the mainstay of their politics. The defections have demoralised the rank and file and fortified the perception that BJP has a big lead over its rivals and avoiding a mauling will be seen as a gain for the opposition.As in all state elections since 2014, PM Narendra Modi will be the main BJP campaigner and he can be expected to try and keep the Lok Sabha momentum going, using decisions like scrapping Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and passage of the bill to ban triple talaq as examples of political will. He can be expected to attack Congress over corruption cases dogging its leaders. Though state issues dominate assembly polls, BJP hopes the “national” discourse brings it more cheer.It will be a first if saffron forces score consecutive wins in Maharashtra and Haryana. BJP and Sena were in office earlier in 1995-1999, but were unable to repeat their success till 2014. BJP won a majority on its own in Haryana for the first time in 2014 and another win will help consolidate its hold over a state where Jat politics led by the Devi Lal clan or leaders from the Congress-fold has often held sway.In Maharashtra, though BJP and Sena have agreed to contest together, seat-sharing and selection of constituencies has held up formalisation of the pact. The past five years, however, have seen a dimunition of Sena influence despite the bitter barbs flung at chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and even Modi. The role reversal that saw BJP claim the leadership seems irreversible even as Sena’s third generation readies to contest.The elections are also a tale of current and former chief ministers and state satraps. Fadnavis and Harayana CM Manohar Lal were unlikely picks who earned their spurs, challenging traditional caste calculations and overcoming aggressive quota agitations. They came across as development-oriented and have “clean” images, getting the better of established figures in the politics of their states.Hooda is fighting for political survival after he and his son Deepinder lost the LS elections. He threatened to float a separate party and now has been given pole position in Congress affairs though former minister Selja, a Dalit and close to Sonia Gandhi, is the state chief. He has begun a populist campaign of large unemployment doles and loan waivers.In Maharashtra, Congress is deprived of a more recognisable face with former CMs Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan pushed to the background. NCP chief Sharad Pawar faces a tough test to protect his base in western Maharashtra where he faces desertions and a determined BJP. Pawar would like to emerge as the principal alternative but this task is also not easy with BJP keenly wooing Maratha leaders.According to the schedule announced by the EC, polling is to be held in a single phase on October 21. Counting for the latest round of state polls is scheduled for October 24. Polls in Jharkhand, where the term of the current assembly expires only on January 5, will be announced separately later, as was done in 2014 and earlier occasions as well.The EC on Saturday also announced simultaneous byelections to the Lok Sabha seat of Samastipur in Bihar, which fell vacant upon the death of Lok Janshakti Party MP Ram Chandra Paswan in July, as well 64 assembly seats across 17 states and one Union territory. All bypolls, including in 15 assembly seats of Karnataka — many vacant due to disqualification of sitting MLAs — will be held on October 21.Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora , flanked by election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, said the commission, while scheduling the bypolls, took care to exclude seats where election petitions are pending or where a stay has been pronounced restraining the EC. West Bengal and Uttarakhand, he said, had specifically requested the poll panel not to hold bypolls for now, citing the coming Durga Puja festivities and panchayat polls respectively. The model code of conduct has come into immediate effect in the poll-bound states and assembly seats going to bypolls.Determined to put a tight leash on money power, the EC has, in addition to regular monitoring mechanisms such as surveillance teams and flying squads, deployed two special expenditure observers in Maharashtra— B Murali Kumar and Madhu Mahajan. The maximum expenditure limit for assembly poll candidates in Haryana and Maharashtra is Rs 28 lakh. Candidates with criminal antecedents must disseminate information through newspapers and TV channels on three occasions during the campaign.VVPAT count will be matched with the EVM outcome in five randomly selected polling stations across each assembly constituency, Arora told mediapersons here. States and UTs where bypolls have been announced are: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.