State registers 61.44% turnout, Kolhapur polling highest at 70%
MUMBAI: After a slow start, voter turnout for the third phase of polling in 11 constituencies in Maharashtra picked up on Tuesday, reaching 61.44% at 6pm. Among the 11 constituencies, the lowest turnout of 56.07% was recorded in Baramati, the family pocket borough of Sharad Pawar, where his daughter and NCP (SP) Supriya Sule is pitted against her sister-in-law and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar.
Several high-profile candidates were in the fray in the third phase, including Sule, union medium and small enterprises minister Narayan Rane, two descendants of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare.
The highest voting percentage of 70.35% was recorded in Kolhapur, where there was a direct contest between the incumbent Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Mandlik and Congress candidate and the 12th descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj.
The second-highest turnout of 68.07% was recorded in Hatkanangale, which witnessed a threecornered fight. Sitting Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane, who was seeking a second term, was pitted against Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Satyajit Patil Sarudkar and prominent farm leader Raju Shetti.
In Satara, where Chhatrapati Shivaji’s descendant and BJP candidate Udayaraje Bhonsle was pitted against NCP (SP) candidate Shashikant Shinde, the polling percentage was 63.05%.
In Madha, which also witnessed a high-profile contest between sitting MP and BJP candidate Ranjeetsinh Naik Nimbalkar and NCP (SP) candidate Dhairysheel Mohite-patil, the turnout was 62.17%. The constituency straddles the districts of Solapur and Satara. MohitePatil, who quit the BJP after he was denied a ticket, has considerable influence in Solapur and his return to the Sharad Pawar camp was considered politically significant.
In neighbouring Solapur, where Congress legislator and former union minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti Shinde contested opposite BJP’S Ram Satpute, the turnout was 57.61%. Praniti was trying to wrest the seat her father lost in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
Polling percentage for the remaining seats in the state were as follows, as per data released by the Election Commission — Osmanabad: 60.91%, Latur: 60.18%, Ratnagiri-sindhudurg: 59.23%, Raigad: 58.10%, Sangli: 60.95%.
Voting in Baramati, the most talked about constituency in Pune district, was marred by allegations of threats against NCP (SP) workers and distribution of money among voters by the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. A video of NCP MLA from Indapur Datta Bharne allegedly abusing the Sharad Pawar faction also went viral on Tuesday.
Allegations and counter-allegations were traded in the Konkan region too, including in the Ratnagiri-sindhudurg constituency, where union minister Rane is contesting on a BJP ticket opposite Shiv Sena (UBT) sitting MP Vinayak Raut; and in the neighbouring Raigad district, where NCP state unit chief and sitting MP Sunil Tatkare is pitted against Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Anant Geete.
Among the 11 seats that went to the polls in the third phase, the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena had won four seats each in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while the undivided NCP had won three seats.