Maharashtra: 31.55% turnout till 1 pm; Pawars among early voters

A voter turnout of 31.55 per cent was recorded till 1 pm in 11 of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra, where polling is underway in the third phase of the general elections on Tuesday, election authorities said.

As per data shared by the authorities, Latur registered 32.71 per cent polling, Sangli 29.65 per cent, Baramati 27.55 per cent, Hathkanangale 36.17 per cent, Kolhapur 38.42 per cent, Madha 26.61 per cent, Osmanabad 30.54 per cent, Raigad 31.34 per cent, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg 33.91 per cent, Satara 32.78 per cent and Solapur 29.32 per cent.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, his wife Sunetra Pawar, the NCP candidate from Baramati, and his mother Asha Pawar were among the early voters.

They cast their votes at a polling booth in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in Pune district, where Sunetra is pitted against her sister-in-law Supriya Sule, the sitting MP from Baramati.

NCP (SP) head Sharad Pawar, his wife Pratibha Pawar, daughter Supriya Sule and her family, MLA Rohit Pawar and his family also voted in Baramati.

Actor-couple Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia Deshmukh cast their votes in Latur, while Union minister Narayan Rane voted in Sindhudurg.

Ritesh Deshmukh is the son of Congress leader and former state chief minister late Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Rane is the BJP candidate from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat.

Voting began at 7 am across the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Some prominent contestants include royal scions Shahu Chhatrapati of the Congress in Kolhapur and BJP's Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara.

A total of 2.09 crore persons are eligible to vote for 258 candidates in the third phase, an official said.

As many as 23,036 polling centres have been set up in the state, he said.

There are 1,07,64,741 male voters, 1,02,26,946 female voters and 929 from the third gender, the official said.