Maharashtra elections 2024: 6.61 per cent voter turnout till 9 am

Pic/Anurag Ahire

Maharashtra recorded 6.61 per cent voter turnout till 9 am on Wednesday as the polling for Maharashtra elections 2024 was underway in all 288 assembly constituencies of the state, as per election officials.

Gadchiroli district witnessed 12.33 per cent turnout in the first two hours of polling. The Armori assembly segment in the district registered 13.53 per cent polling.

In Mumbai suburban, 7.88 per cent turnout was recorded. Bhandup and Mulund suburbs saw 10.59 per cent and 10.71 per cent turnout.

Mumbai city recorded 6.25 per cent polling.

While Colaba saw 5.35 per cent turnout, Worli recorded 3.78 per cent polling, according to the election officials.

Polling began Wednesday morning in the Maharashtra assembly elections, where the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is vying to retain power and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) combine is hoping for a strong comeback.

Voting began in all the 288 assembly seats at 7 am and will end at 6 pm, an election official said. The votes will be counted on November 23.

Over 9.7 crore voters will be choosing from among the 4,136 candidates in the fray, the official said.

In the Mahayuti alliance, the BJP is contesting 149 seats, Shiv Sena is in the fray in 81 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has fielded candidates in 59 constituencies.

In the opposition's MVA combine, the Congress has fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95, and NCP (SP) has put up 86 candidates.

Smaller parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), are also contesting, with BSP fielding 237 candidates and AIMIM 17 in the 288-member Lower House.

The number of candidates this time has increased by 28 per cent compared to the 2019 state assembly elections. This year, 4,136 candidates are contesting, up from 3,239 in 2019.

Among these candidates, 2,086 are independents. Rebels are in the fray in over 150 constituencies, with candidates from the Mahayuti and MVA contesting against their party's official nominees.

As on October 30, the updated number of registered voters stands at 9,70,25,119, officials said.

Among these, there are 5,00,22,739 male voters, 4,69,96,279 female voters, and 6,101 transgender voters. Additionally, the total number of PwD (Persons with Disabilities) voters is 6,41,425, while the number of service voters from the armed forces is 1,16,170.

There will be 1,00,186 polling booths in Maharashtra this time, compared to 96,654 booths in the 2019 assembly elections. This increase is due to the rise in the number of voters.

Around six lakh state government employees will be involved in election duties.

Since the code of conduct came into force on October 15, cash and items worth Rs 252.42 crore were seized in enforcement actions conducted under various schemes of the central and state governments.

The seized items included Rs 63.47 crore cash, along with 34,89,088 litres of liquor valued at Rs 33.73 crore.

Additionally, Rs 32.67 crore drugs were confiscated, along with precious metals valued at Rs 83.12 crore.

Officials also seized 34,634 pieces of jewellery worth Rs 2.79 crore and 8,79,913 miscellaneous items valued at Rs 36.62 crore.

During the same period, 2,469 complaints related to violations of the Model Code of Conduct were received across the state via the C-Vigil app. Of these, 2,452 complaints, amounting to 99.31 per cent, were promptly resolved.

(With inputs from Agencies)