Maharashtra records 61.80 percent voting

Mumbai, April 17 (IANS) An average turnout of 61.80 percent was recorded in voting for 19 Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra that went to poll in the second phase of elections of the state and in the sixth phase nationally, an official said.

The voting percentage picked up from an average of 40 percent at 3 p.m. to close at an average of 61.80 percent at 6 p.m.

The final voting figures (in percentage) recorded are: Hingoli - 63, Nanded - 63, Parbhani - 62, Maval - 63.10, Pune - 58.75, Baramati - 58.20, Shirur - 59.50, Ahmednagar - 60, Shirdi - 61, Beed - 64, Osmanabad - 65, Latur - 62, Solapur - 57, Madha - 62, Sangli - 62, Satara - 57, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg - 60, Kolhapur - 68 and Hathkanangale - 69.

This makes the average turnout slightly less than 62.37 recorded in 10 constituencies of Vidarbha where polling was held April 10.

In Thursday's polling, Hathkanangale recored the highest voting (69 percent), while Satara and Solapur were lowest at 57 percent, officials said.

Fate of top candidates like Sushilkumar Shinde, Gopinath Munde, Ashok Chavan, Supriya Sule, and Udayanraje Bhosale has now been sealed in the electronic voting machines.

There were a total of 358 candidates in the fray, including 24 women and 201 independents.

The scene will now shift to the remaining 19 constituencies where elections will be held April 24. These includes important constituencies of Mumbai, Konkan and north Maharashtra.