Maharashtra Election 2019 Voting Updates: A 45-year-old teacher posted on election duty in Gadchiroli district died in a hospital after fainting while walking towards the voting booth in morning. Meanwhile, it was reported that a BSP leader threw ink at an EVM inside a polling booth in Thane.
Maharashtra Election 2019 Latest Update: A 45-year-old teacher posted on election duty in Gadchiroli district died in a hospital after fainting while walking towards the voting booth in morning. Meanwhile, it was reported that a BSP leader threw ink at an EVM inside a polling booth in Thane.
Maharashtra recorded 46.11 percent polling percentage till 5 pm, Kolhapur recording the highest turnout of 56.25 percent. Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Prakash Javadekar expressed confidence that BJP will win in Maharashtra, with the latter saying that the saffron alliance will break Congress' 1972 Assembly polls 222-victory record.
Voting for Maharashtra Assembly elections will close at 6 pm today. However, voters already in the queue will be allowed to cast their votes. The exit polls, which are an attempt to understand leanings of the electorate, will begin airing on various television channels after 6.30 pm, as according to Election Commission rules, no survey or exit poll data can be revealed till the last vote is cast because it has the potential to influence voter behaviour.
The state Congress unit also sent 187 complaints to the Election Commission of malfunctioning of EVMs. Faulty EVMs delayed polling at some booths in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri and Bhandara districts on Monday, an official said. Polling was also halted for sometime at a booth in Worli area of Mumbai due to a technical error, he said.
The state of Maharashtra has recorded 27.88 percent turnout by 1 pm. The least amount of voting percentage was recorded in Ahmadpur.
Three motocycle-borne masked men fired at a candidate of pro-farmer outfit Swabhimani Paksha on Monday when he was going in a car, and also beat him up after pulling him out of the vehicle in Maharashtra's Amravati district, police said. The attackers later set the car ablaze.
Some of the voters at Cheetah Camp (Anushakti Nagar assembly) area have complained of their names missing from the voters list. There have also been complaints of delay in voting process due to EVM snags.
With the overall voter turnout in Maharashtra at 6.78 percent till 11 am, the districts of Jalna, Yavatmal, and Nandurbar recorded the highest voter turnouts individually, with 13.13 percent, 12.34 percent, and 11.59 percent respectively.
Sources said that the mood leading up to the Maharashtra elections has been lukewarm. Many see it as a foregone conclusion in favour of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, despite disagreements over the seat-sharing arrangements ahead of the Assembly election.
The challenge for the Opposition is to convince voters to vote based on locally relevant issues. The NCP has put up a fight, but the Congress’ presence is seen in pockets, or only where they have a prominent leader.As polling got underway in all 288 constituencies in Maharashtra on Monday, the voter turnout recorded was 6.78 percent till 11 am, reports said.
The mood leading up to the Maharashtra elections has been lukewarm. Many see it as a foregone conclusion in favour of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, despite disagreements over the seat-sharing arrangements ahead of the Assembly election.
The challenge for the Opposition is to convince voters to vote based on locally relevant issues. The NCP has put up a fight, but the Congress’ presence is seen in pockets, or only where they have a prominent leader.
NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, who has fought a pitched battle against the Mahayuti alliance in Maharastra, cast his vote from Mumbai's Tardeo. His daughter and senior party leader, Supriya Sule exercised her franchise from family bastion Baramati.
Two members of the Munde family are locked in a direct battle. Pankaja Munde, late Gopinath Munde's daughter and the rural development minister in the current government is facing her cousin, Dhananjay who is the Leader of the Opposition. Dhananjay is contesting on an NCP ticket. Pankaja had defeated Dhananjay Munde in the 2014 assembly elections.
Union minister Piyush Goyal cast his vote from the Malabar Hill constituency. He said, "I am happy that today 2 states are going to polling. BJP under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra and Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana - will win by large numbers." Heera Navaji Devasi of Congress and BJP candidate and sitting MLA Mangalprabhat Lodha will be locking horns for this seat.
In Mumbai city, more than 40,000 personnel will be deployed along with 22 companies of the Central Para-Military Forces, a Mumbai Police spokesperson said. Among the 1,536 polling centres in Mumbai district, 269 centers are declared as critical and vulnerable. "A strong police vigil will be maintain in those locations. There is not a single vulnerable or critical polling centre in suburbs of Mumbai," he said.
As part of preventive action, police have taken bonds from 3860 persons under section 107 of CrPc and 1279 persons under section 110. At least 164 persons have been externed from Mumbai while four persons have been booked under Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA) Act, he said.
Devendra Fadnavis became the first chief minister of the state in nearly 50 years to complete a full five-year tenure, moreover, if the pundits are right, come next week he will also be the one to get a consecutive second term. The last time this happened in Maharashtra was when Vasantrao Naik was its chief minister.
Voting in single-phase Assembly elections in Maharashtra has begun. The state, which is also due to elect its Satara Lok Sabha MP, will see a pitched battle between Mahayuti (Shiv Sena and BJP alliance) and NCP and Congress combine.
Voting is scheduled to begin at 7 am at all polling booths, the Election Commission of India said. The term for the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly ends on 9 November.
In Maharashtra, the Congress and NCP have already figured a seat-sharing plan, the parties will fight about 123-125 seats each and leave 41 for smaller allies, said Congress' Prithviraj Chavan. Depending on consensus between the parties, the seats may be swapped, Chavan was quoted as saying.
Representational image. AP
According to the data provided by the Election Commission, in Maharashtra, there are 8,95,62,706 voters, of which 8,94,46,211 are general electors and 1,16,495 are service voters. Up from 90,403 in 2014, the number of polling booths where people can cast their vote in Maharashtra has gone up to 95,473, reflecting an increase of 5.61 percent.
This is the first state Assembly election since Narendra Modi led the BJP to power at the Centre for a second term in May. The Assembly elections are also the first since the government announced the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the BJP will retain power and he will continue to hold the chief minister's post. He also confirmed that the BJP and Shiv Sena will be in alliance for the upcoming elections and added that the seat-sharing formula would be revealed soon.
"I am saying with no uncertainty that we will contest the Assembly polls along with Shiv Sena. The seat-sharing talks are still on, do not trust the reports," Fadnavis said while speaking at the "India Today Conclave 2019" being held in Mumbai.
Talks between the two parties have not reached a conclusion, as the BJP wants to fight a larger share of the 288 Assembly seats while the Sena wants it to stick to the earlier agreed formula that both will contest an equal number of constituencies.
Both parties could not agree to a seat-sharing deal even in the 2014 polls, leading to them fighting the elections separately. The BJP won 122 seats and the Sena 63 seats. They joined hands after the polls to form a government.
With inputs from agencies
