Maha civic polls: 17 pc voter turnout in first four hours

Mumbai: About 17.07 per cent voters today exercised their franchise in the first four hours of polling for 10 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, including the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) here. According to officials, brisk polling is underway in all the ten civic corporations with 17 pc turnout recorded till 11.30 AM. Whereas in 11 Zilla Parishads, around 23.9 per cent voting was recorded till 11.30 AM, they said. Polling began at 7.30 AM at 43,160 polling stations spread across the state. It will end at 5.30 PM. In Mumbai, as the day progressed, voting picked up with several politicians and film celebrities industry stepping out to cast their votes.

NCP president Sharad Pawar was among early voters in Mumbai, while Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray went to a polling booth near his residence in Bandra to exercise his voting rights along with his family. BJP leaders, who cast their votes included party Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar, MP Poonam Mahajan and Shaina NC. Other leaders who were among early voters in Mumbai were former CM Manohar Joshi and MNS chief Raj Thackeray.

In Nagpur, early voters included RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari while Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis cast his vote along with wife Amruta and mother in city's Dharampeth area around 11.45 AM. Several eminent personalities including former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro, Joint Police Commissioner Deven Bharti, Election Commissioner K S Saharia, BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta also cast their vote in Mumbai. Celebrities from the film industry included actors Anushka Sharma, Rekha, Shreyas Talpade, Prem Chopra, Shraddha Kapoor, Manyata Dutt; filmmakers Zoya Akhtar, Gulzar, Subhash Ghai and Kunal Kapoor. Among sportpersons, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, his wife Anjali, former cricketer Sandeep Patil exercised their franchise. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar cast his vote in Pune while veteran Congressman Sushil Kumar Shinde gave his ballot at Solapur.

The 10 municipal corporations going to polls today are Mumbai, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur. Also, elections are being held in 118 Panchayat Samitis in Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Pune, Solapur, Nashik, Amravati and Gadchiroli districts. Meanwhile, in Nashik, some voters whose names were found missing from voters' list in Mhasrul locality staged a rasta roko, police said. A total of 3.77 crore voters will determine the fate of 17,331 candidates for 3210 seats up for grabs in the second phase of polls, being seen as "mini general elections."