Long queues in Pune; Shinde and Supriya Sule among early voters

Pune: Voters made a beeline in front of many polling stations here as people in large numbers turned out this morning to exercise their franchise.

Among early voters were Union Home Minister and Congress candidate in neighbouring Solapur Sushil Kumar Shinde and NCP nominee in Pune district’s Baramati constituency Supriya Sule, daughter of party chief Sharad Pawar.

Young voters as well as senior citizens were seen lining up enthusiastically since early morning in the city which experienced a drizzle in the wee hours.

In Pune, much depends on whether sitting Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi remains true to his word not to harm the electoral prospects of party candidate Vishwajit Kadam.

Kadam is pitted against his BJP rival Anil Shirole, who had lost the 2009 election to Kalmadi with a narrow margin of around 25,000 votes.

Also in the fray are Deepak Paigude of MNS and Subhash Ware fielded by Aam Aadmi Party. Rahul Narvekar of the NCP is fighting election from Maval after leaving Shiv Sena recently. Pune district consists of four Lok Sabha constituencies - Pune City, Maval, Shirur and Baramati.

PTI