Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil withdraws from assembly elections, says "Polls cannot be fought on basis of one caste"

"Candidates should withdraw their applications quickly, no one should keep any application with them," Patil said.

"Elections cannot be fought on the basis of one caste," Jarange said, and appealed to the Maratha community to just go out and vote.

Today is the last day for withdrawing nominations. Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held on November 20 and votes will be counted on November 23.

He also appealed to his supporters that they should not go to any candidate's campaign or meeting.

"We have not supported anyone on any seat, nor any independent political party," he said.

Earlier in a press conference, Patil also highlighted the conditional support to various candidates in the upcoming assembly elections, saying, "whoever needs to fall, bring them down, and whoever needs to be elected, elect them."

On October 20, the Maratha activist had announced candidates for certain constituencies, while any other candidate who is willing to support their demands in writing would be supported by the community.

"I think ..seats where we can win elections we will give candidate. Seats where SC-ST candidates are contesting irrespective of the party we will not give candidate on that seat, we should support them. Where we can't win... there we will support the candidate who can give in writing on bond paper that he supports our demands, we will support that candidate," he said during his speech in October at Antarvali village in Jalna district.

Maharashtra assembly elections is a hotly contested battle ground between two major alliances, the ruling Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA).

Mahayuti alliance comprises of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar).

MVA is an alliance between Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar). (ANI)