The blistering summer heat notwithstanding, voters queued up at polling stations in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra that went to polls in the third phase of the general elections on Tuesday. The 14 constituencies witnessed a 57.01% voter turnout till 5 p.m., according to the election authorities.
Ten of the seats are in western Maharashtra, with two crucial constituencies each in north Maharashtra (Jalgaon and Raver) and Marathwada region (Aurangabad and Jalna) respectively rounding out the rest.
Soaring mercury levels failed to dampen the enthusiasm of voters in Kolhapur and Hatkanangale, which registered the highest turnouts — 65.70% and 64.79% respectively — till 5 p.m.
Shraddha Bhagat shows her inked finger after casting her vote before her wedding ceremony at Narayan Peth in Pune on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: Mandar Tannu
In contrast, in urban Pune, only 43.63% of the registered electorate turned up to cast their votes. Pune’s lacklustre turnout was the lowest among the 14 constituencies, falling way below the 53.4% recorded in 2014. An early burst of enthusiasm, which saw several Punekars queuing outside polling booths well before the scheduled 7 a.m. start time, petered out rapidly despite a number of establishments, including private companies, remaining shut in a bid to encourage voting.
Decent turnout in most
While EVM glitches in a few booths in Satara, Madha and Ahmednagar temporarily halted the process, the polling was largely peaceful.
Most seats witnessed a decent voter turnout, nearly matching, or in some cases surpassing, the 2014 figure. Baramati saw a voter turnout of 55.84%, while 55.40% of the electorate cast their votes in Satara, 59.39% in Sangli, 56.41% in Madha, 52.28% in Jalgaon, 56.18% in Raver, 58.82% in Aurangabad, 59.92% in Jalna, 57.75% in Ahmednagar, 56.14% in Raigad and 57.63% in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.
This phase comprises of some of the most fiercely contested seats in Maharashtra, with the prestige of a number of big leaders and clans including the Pawars, Vikhe-Patils and Ranes, at stake. Many seats, like Baramati, Madha, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Sangli, are expected to witness high-profile and wildly unpredictable contests.
Senior citizen Bhagvan Shevde, popularly know as Satara’s Bal Thackeray, is helped up a ramp at a polling station in Bhavani Peth, Satara, on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: Jignesh Mistry
“It is 100% certain that the NCP will retain Baramati. The BJP’s efforts to supplant the Pawars will come a cropper,” NCP leader Ajit Pawar said, after casting his vote in Katewadi in Baramati.
Joshi confident
Speaking to The Hindu, after casting his vote, the Congress-NCP candidate for Pune, Mohan Joshi, predicted that the Congress would reclaim its erstwhile bastion. “It is quite clear that people have tired of the five-year misrule of the BJP. The party, led by Pune’s Guardian Minister Girish Bapat [the BJP-Sena’s candidate for Pune], has comprehensively failed to address the acute water scarcity and the garbage disposal issues,” Mr. Joshi said.
He alleged that Mr. Bapat and the BJP had misused their powers to deter Congress observers at several booths in the city.
The BJP-Sena’s candidate for the Madha seat, Ranjitsinh Naik-Nimbalkar levelled a similar allegation at his nemesis, the NCP’s Sanjay Shinde, claiming that Mr. Shinde’s agents had ‘driven away’ the BJP’s observers from certain booths.
Expressing satisfaction at the turnout in Kolhapur and Sangli, senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil, the party’s strategist for western Maharashtra said, “Such enthusiasm only indicates that people wish to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi get a second-term again…I am confident that the BJP-Sena will sweep all 10 seats in western Maharashtra and win 45 of the 48 LS seats in the State.”
The voter turnout included commoners, theatre artistes, activists, littérateurs and film and sports celebrities. A large number of senior citizens, including some centenarians, turned up to cast their votes. In Pune, theatre artistes-activists like Amol Palekar and Mohan Agashe, and 96-year-old history scholar Babasaheb Purandare were seen casting their votes, while anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare was seen exercising his franchise in Ahmednagar.