Mumbai: The Maharashtra Assembly polls scheduled for tomorrow (Oct 13, 2004) are poised to be a cliff-hanger with rebellion plaguing both the major political alliances -- Congress-NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) and the (Bharatiya Janata Party) BJP-Shiv Sena -- and smaller parties BSP (Bahujan Samajwadi party) and SP (Samajwadi Party) raising their stakes.

The ruling Congress-NCP, buoyed by their victory in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls but attempting to ward off dissension and anti-incumbency factor, lock horns with Shiv Sena-BJP combine, still reeling under the NDA's (National Democratic Alliance) defeat and ill-health preventing their star campaigner Bal Thackeray from campaigning with full vigour.

Though the two major political combinations are slugging it out, the presence of BSP, Samajwadi Party and over 1,000 independents have turned the elections to the 288-member Lower House into a multi-cornered contest.

The BSP, which played spoilsport for the Congress in Vidarbha in the Lok Sabha polls, is contesting 272 seats - the highest ever for it - and has extended an emotional appeal of carving out a separate State of Vidarbha.

The SP, which is contesting 95 seats, has the potential of dividing votes in the minority-dominated Assembly constituencies.

Prominent among those in the fray included Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is seeking re-election to the State Assembly from Solapur (south) Assembly constituency while Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysingh Mohite-Patil and senior NCP leader is contesting from his home turf of Malshiras.

The fate of three former Chief Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh (Latur), Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar (Nilanga), both Congress, and Narayan Rane of Sena from Malvan, will also be decided in the polls.