Maharashtra: 57.22 per cent polling in 2nd phase, less than 2014 Lok Sabha polls

An average 57.22 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm across 10 constituencies in Maharashtra which went to the polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, an official said. The final turnout of Thursday’s polling in the state will be known later and could be higher, the official said. In 2014, the average voting in these seats was 62.39 per cent.

Nanded Lok Sabha seat recorded 60.88 per cent voting, the highest in the second phase, followed by Hingoli at 60.69 per cent. Parbhani recorded 58.50 per cent voting, Beed 58.44 per cent, Latur (SC) 57.94 per cent, Buldhana 57.09 per cent Osmanabad 57.04 per cent, Amravati (SC) 55.43 per cent, Akola 54.45 per cent and Solapur (SC) 51.98 per cent, he said.

In Nanded, there were complaints that as many as 78 electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioned. A total of 179 candidates were in the fray in these constituencies. Beed had the maximum number of contestants - 36 - while 10 candidates contested from Latur.

Prominent figures in the fray were state Congress chief Ashok Chavan who is seeking another term from his hometurf Nanded, and former Union home minister and Congress veteran Sushilkumar Shinde who is contesting his "last election" from Solapur.

In Beed, the hometurf of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, his daughter Pritam Munde is seeking another term. She faced Bajrang Sonawane of the NCP.

In the 2014 elections, the NDA had won eight out of these ten seats, whereas the Congress had won two - Nanded and Hingoli.

A total of 62,700 EVMs and around 27,000 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines were used in Thursday’s polling, the official said.