look news india
Mumbai: Nearly 60 per cent of the state’s 9.70 crore voters have exercised their franchise during the single-phase voting for 288 seats in Maharashtra, the Election Commission said till this evening. However, these are approximate figures and are subject to change. The decision of the voters has been recorded in the EVMs whether a coalition government of BJP, Ajit Pawar’s NCP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena will be formed in the state or whether the voters will reject this alliance and give a chance to Congress. Uddhavthkar’s Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP. Now, with the counting of votes on 23rd, we will know what decision the voters have given.
The same trend of slow voting was seen almost everywhere since voting started today across the state. However, voters in Naxal-affected tribal district Gadchiroli disappointed voters in all the districts of the state. Here, despite the threats of election boycott plan, a large number of voters reached the polling stations in difficult areas and about 70 percent voting took place.
Gadchiroli has witnessed record voting in all the previous elections. On the other hand, Mumbaikars again proved to be laggards regarding voting. There was a slight improvement in the voting percentage compared to the last Lok Sabha, although initial estimates were that only about fifty-two percent voting took place across the city till this evening.
In Colaba, South Mumbai, barely 41 percent voting took place till 5 pm. At the same time, only 47 percent voting took place in Worli and 46 percent voting took place in Mumbai. Whereas in other areas, more than 60 percent voting took place in seats like Bhandup and Borivali. At the same time, 48 percent voting took place at a slow pace in Malad. The average voting in all other wards was found to be around fifty-two to fifty-four percent.
This time a lot of effort was made for voter awareness in Mumbai, due to the huge disturbances at polling stations during the Lok Sabha elections, turnout was low. This time an attempt was made to avoid its recurrence. However, about 45 per cent of Mumbaikars avoided going to the polling booth for a long time.
Meanwhile, sporadic incidents of violence were also reported during voting in the state. The biggest incident was a clash between two groups of NCP workers in Parli in Beed district. Meanwhile, workers of Ajit Pawar’s party NCP vandalized six booths and broke EVMs. Voting was conducted here by bringing new EVMs.
A clash broke out between independent candidate Sameer Bhujbal and Shinde Sena workers in Nashik district, in which it was alleged that the Shinde Sena candidate had threatened to kill Sameer Bhujbal. A few hours before voting in Shrirampur, firing was done on the car of the candidate of Uddhav group.
Throughout the day today there were reports of incidents like EVM malfunctioning. In Mumbai’s Borivali and Pune also, several EVMs malfunctioned in the mock drill before the start of voting.
The fate of 4140 candidates on 288 seats in the state has already been sealed in EVMs. BJP has the maximum number of 149 candidates in the ruling alliance. Whereas Congress has the maximum number of 101 candidates in the opposition Aghadi. Sharad Pawar’s NCP is contesting on 86 seats while Ajit Pawar’s NCP is contesting on 59 seats. Whereas, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena is contesting on 95 seats, while Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena is contesting on 81 seats. Apart from 150 rebels from both the camps, other small groups are also in the field.
