LS polls: Maharashtra sees 53.40 pc turnout till 5 pm; Pawars among early voters

Mumbai, May 7 (PTI) A voter turnout of 53.40 per cent was recorded till 5 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 the data shared by the authorities, Kolhapur recorded the highest 63.71 per cent polling, followed by Hatkanangale at 62.18 per cent, Latur at 55.38 per cent, Satara at 54.11 per cent, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg at 53.75 per cent, Osmanabad at 52.78 per cent, Sangli 52.56 per cent, Raigad 50.31 per cent, Madha 50 per cent, Solapur 49.17 per cent and Baramati 45.68 per cent.

Voting began at 7 am across these constituencies. Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar, his wife Sunetra Pawar, the NCP candidate from Baramati constituency in Pune district, and his mother Asha Pawar were among the early voters. They cast their votes at a polling booth in Baramati, where Sunetra is pitted against her sister-in-law Supriya Sule, the sitting MP from there.

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 D’souza cast their votes in Latur, while Union minister Narayan Rane voted in Sindhudurg.

Riteish Deshmukh is the son of Congress leader and former state chief minister late Vilasrao Deshmukh, whose home turf was Latur.

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

A total of 2.09 crore persons are eligible to vote for 258 candidates in the third phase, for which 23,036 polling centres have been set up, an election official said.

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