Vidarbha: Highest turnout in Maoist-affected areas
NAGPUR: Stray incidents of Maoist violence in Gadchiroli district notwithstanding, the Vidarbha region recorded a 66% turnout on Wednesday.
Despite Maoist calls for an election boycott in the tribal region, Gadchiroli recorded a turnout of 72%. After Gadchiroli, the second highest turnout of 68% was recorded in another Maoist-affected district, Gondia.
A police officer was seriously injured when the extremists attacked a polling party near Chapalwada polling centre under Chamorshi tehsil on Wednesday evening.
The landmine blast took place when the police party was travelling in a van carrying ballot boxes after voting ended at Chapalwada polling centre.
The injured police officer was airlifted to a private hospital in Nagpur, and was reported to be out of danger.
In another incident, the rebels opened fire at a police party at Tadapalli polling centre in south Gadchiroli. The suspected Maoists fled when the police retaliated. No one was injured.
After heavy rains in the region, particularly eastern Vidarbha, coupled with EVM breakdowns and power outages affected the turnout in the initial hours of polling, voting gathered pace in the evening with the turnout crossing 55% by 5pm.
In Bhandara, the polling percentage was over 66%, while Yavatmal, Washin, Akola and Wardha recorded an average turnout of 65%. Chandrapur, Amravati and Buldhana witnessed 67% polling while Nagpur district registered 61% polling.
Around 1.76 crore voters in the Vidarbha region will elect 62 members to the assembly.
In most constituencies, it’s a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress. In the 2009 assembly election, the Congress had won the most seats in the region with 24, with the BJP coming in second with 19 seats.
LIGHTNING KILLS 1
Lightning killed a head constable and injured 15 others – two of them seriously – at a polling booth in Saoner assembly constituency on Wednesday morning.
Most of the injured suffered first and second degree burns and