Mumbai: Mumbai recorded only 16.40% voter turnout till 11.30am on Tuesday in the election to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India’s richest civic body. Though the polling percentage nearly doubled from 8.7% till 9.30am, some of the city’s upmarket parts in South Mumbai saw very indifferent voter response till 11.30am.
Polling began at 7.30am for 10 civic bodies and 11 zila parishads.
Pimpri-Chinchwad city reported 20.73% voter turnout till 11.30am, followed by Pune which saw 19.5% voter turnout in the election to Pune Municipal Corporation. Mumbai’s neighbouring city of Thane witnessed 19.11% turnout till 11.30am. Solapur city reported 18% turnout in the election to Solapur Municipal Corporation, while Solapur district saw 24% turnout in the election to Solapur zila parishad. The turnout was 18.50% in the election to Nashik Municipal Corporation till 11.30am and 17% in Satara zila parishad polls. Nagpur, the home town of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, reported only 16% polling till 11.30am. Akola city in Vidarbha saw 15% turnout.
Prominent Mumbai residents, politicians and celebrities turned out to vote with their families. While Fadnavis cast his vote in Nagpur, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar voted in Mumbai. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party chief Ashish Shelar, former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, actor Anushka Sharma, veteran industrialist Ratan Tata and a host of other prominent Mumbai residents took part in polling in the early hours of voting.
