Mumbai. An estimated 60 percent voting was recorded on Wednesday in the Maharashtra Assembly elections where the ruling party. The grand alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to retain power. At the same time, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance is hoping to return to power in the state by performing well in this election like the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Election officials said that these figures are temporary. He said that there was 61.74 percent voting in the 2019 elections.
In Naxal-affected Garh-Chiroli district, 69.63 percent voting took place on Wednesday, while in the financial capital Mumbai, 51.41 percent voting took place. In the 2019 elections, the voting figure in Mumbai was 50.67 percent. Many Bollywood celebrities including Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Ranbir Kapoor cast their votes.
Voting began at 7 am in all 288 assembly seats of Maharashtra Assembly and people decided the fate of over 4,100 candidates at 1,00,186 booths, which is more than the number of booths created in the 2019 elections. There were 96,654 booths in the year 2019. Counting of votes will take place on November 23. BJP, which is part of the Grand Alliance, has fielded its candidates on 149 seats, Shiv Sena on 81 seats and Ajit Pawar-led NCP on 59 seats.
Congress, which is part of the opposition alliance MVA, has fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (Ubhatha) 95 and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) 86 candidates. Smaller parties including Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) are also in the fray. In the elections for the 288-member assembly of the state, BSP has fielded 237 candidates and AIMIM has fielded 17 candidates.
The MVA alliance had performed well in this year’s Lok Sabha elections by winning 30 out of 48 seats in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on social media on Wednesday, urged the voters of Maharashtra to vote with full enthusiasm and participate in the celebration of democracy. Prime Minister Modi especially appealed to women and young voters to vote in large numbers.
Among the early voters was Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, who cast his vote in Nagpur. After voting he said, “Voting is a responsibility which every citizen should fulfill.” He mentioned his commitment to vote early.
Bollywood stars including Akshay Kumar, Rajkummar Rao and filmmaker Farhan Akhtar also came out of their homes early to exercise their franchise and encouraged their fans to do the same. The election campaign for the Maharashtra Assembly ended on Monday with prominent leaders like Prime Minister Modi, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra holding rallies to increase voter participation.
A day before voting, police registered two cases against BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde and party candidate Rajan Naik and 250 others over allegations of ‘note-for-vote’ scam. Allegations related to Bitcoin transactions involving Maharashtra unit chief of Congress Nana Patole and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule also came to light.
Compared to the 2019 state assembly elections, this time the number of candidates increased by 28 percent. This year, 4,136 candidates contested the elections, whereas in the 2019 elections this number was 3,239. Of these candidates, 2,086 were independents. One and a half. Rebels are in the fray in more than a hundred constituencies. This time 1,00,186 polling stations were set up in Maharashtra as compared to 96,654 booths in the 2019 assembly elections.