Maharashtra Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 19% of voters cast ballots in the five Maharashtra seats where the first round of the Lok Sabha elections is being held as of 11 a.m., according to an official.
In all, 97 candidates are running in the easternmost areas of the state: Nagpur, Ramtek (SC), Bhandara-Gondia, Chandrapur, and the Naxal-hit Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) seat. Among them is Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
Over 95 lakh electors are eligible to vote in these seats.
Up to 11 a.m., Bhandara-Gondia had a 19.72% voter turnout, according to the sources. The official reported that up till 11 a.m., Chandrapur recorded 18.94 percent of the total, Gadchiroli-Chimur 24.88 percent, Nagpur 17.53 percent, and Ramtek 16.14 percent.
According to him, the five seats had an average turnout of roughly 19.4%.
There will be four further stages of voting later this month and in May for the state’s forty-three additional Lok Sabha seats.
The five Lok Sabha seats in the Vidarbha area have 95,54,667 electors. According to an election official, of these, 48,28,142 are male, 47,26,178 are female, and 347 are transgender voters.
Senior BJP leader Gadkari, who is running for a third term, is directly competing against Congressman Vikas Thakre in Nagpur. There are 22,18,259 voters in the prominent constituency, where the RSS headquarters is located: 11,10, 840 males, 11,07,197 females, and 222 transgender people.
Among the prominent figures who voted in Nagpur were Gadkari, Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the RSS, and Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.
In Chandrapur, the Congress has nominated Pratibha Dhanorkar, the wife of the late parliamentarian Suresh Dhanorkar, the only member of the grand old party elected to the Lok Sabha from Maharashtra in 2019. The BJP’s Sudhir Mungantiwar, a minister from Maharashtra, is up against her. 18,36,314 people cast ballots in Chandrapur, with 9,45,026 men and 8,91,240 women.
The BJP has put incumbent Member of Parliament Sunil Mendhe up against Congressman Dr. Prashant Patole in Bhandara-Gondia. There are 18,75,106 voters in Bhandara-Gondia overall (9,36,041 males, 9,39,056 females, and 12 transgender people).
In Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST), where some areas are afflicted by the Naxal insurgency, Congress nominee Dr. Namdev Kirsan is running against BJP candidate and two-time Lok Sabha MP Ashok Nete. 16,12,930 voters (8,11,836 men, 8,01,082 women, and 12 transgender people) make up the constituency.
Raju Parwe, the candidate of the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, is facing off against Congressman Shyamkumar Barwe in Ramtek. There are 20,45,717 voters in the constituency overall (10,43,266 men, 10,02,396 women, and 55 transgender people).
Five assembly segments, spanning across two Lok Sabha seats, including Naxal-hit Gadchiroli-Chimur, vote between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., whilst other places allow voters to exercise their franchise till 6 p.m.
Also Read: Arvind Kejriwal vs. ED
Polling is taking place from 7 am to 3 pm in the assembly segments of Arjune Morgaon in the Bhandara-Gondia seat and Amgaon, Armori, Gadchiroli, and Aheri in the Gadchiroli-Chimur Lok Sabha constituency, according to the official.