338 candidates to vie for Maharashtra's 19 LS seats

A total of 338 candidates, including 24 women, will contest the third and final phase of polls in 19 Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra Thursday, officials said Wednesday.

There are 119 Independent candidates in the fray.

Over 3.17 crore voters will exercise their franchise in 16 general and three constituencies reserved for thed Scheduled Tribes, spread across parts of northern Maharashtra, Marathwada and the coastal Konkan region.

Aurangabad has the maximum 27 candidates, while Nandurbar has just nine contenders.

Among the parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party and Aam Aadmi Party are contesting from all the 19 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party are fighting for 11 seats each.

The Congress has fielded 10 candidates, Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena eight each, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena seven, Communist Party of India-Marxist three and CPI two candidates.

Thane is the largest constituency with 2.07 million voters, while Mumbai South Central is the smallest with just 1.44 million electors.

As many as 262,725 polling personnel will be on duty at 34,343 polling stations in 19 constituencies across the state.

In some areas of coastal Thane, they will travel by boats to polling stations..

Mumbai has 3,141 polling stations to be manned by 14,499 polling staff.

As many as 98 polling stations have been identified as "critical", of which 63 are in Mumbai alone.

The 19 constituencies going to the polls Thursday are Aurangabad, Bhiwandi, Dindori, Dhule, Jalgaon, Jalna, Kalyan, Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai South, Nandurbar, Nashik, Palghar, Raver, Raigad and Thane.