Voter turnout at 30.6% in 5 Maharashtra seats till 1 pm

Nearly 30.6 per cent of the 95 lakh eligible voters cast their ballots till 1 pm on Friday in the five Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra where polling is underway in the first phase of the general elections, an official said.

Altogether 97 candidates, including Union minister Nitin Gadkari, are in the fray in Nagpur, Ramtek (SC), Bhandara-Gondia, Chandrapur and Naxal-hit Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) constituency, all located in eastern-most parts of the state.

The voter turnout stood at 34.56 per cent in Bhandara-Gondia till 1 pm, the official said. Chandrapur recorded a turnout of 30.96 per cent, Gadchiroli-Chimur 40.01 per cent, Nagpur 28.75 per cent and Ramtek 28.73 per cent till 1 pm, the official said.

The average turnout in the five seats was about 30.6 per cent till 1 pm, he said.

To avoid any technical snags cropping up in Electronic Voting Machines being used in remote polling booths in Gadchiroli, three spare EVMs were dispatched by a helicopter to the Sironcha area of the district, another official said.

Polling in the 43 other Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held in four more phases later this month and in May.