Average turnout at 44.7% in 5 seats in Maharashtra till 3 pm

Nearly 44.7 per cent of the 95 lakh eligible voters have cast their ballots till 3 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.

A snake on the premises of the KDK College here briefly disrupted polling at the booth there, said the person who rescued the reptile.

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 45.88 per cent in Bhandara-Gondia till 3 pm, the official said. Chandrapur recorded a turnout of 43.48 per cent, Gadchiroli-Chimur 55.79 per cent, Nagpur 38.43 per cent and Ramtek 40.10 per cent till 3 pm, the official said.

The average turnout in the five seats was about 44.73 per cent till 3 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.