Mah: 3.18 cr voters to decide fate of 338 candidates on Apr 24

As many as 3.18 crore voters will exercise their franchise in Maharashtra on April 24 on 19 Lok Sabha seats to determine the fate of 338 candidates including biggies like Chhagan Bhujbal and Milind Deora during third phase of polling.
Out of the 338 candidates in the electoral fray, 149 are independents and 26 are women.
The constituencies which will be witnessing polls that day are: Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Raver,Dindori, Nashik in North Maharashtra, Jalna, Aurangabad in Marathwada, Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane in Thane district, Mumbai North, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai South and Mumbai North East in Mumbai and Raigad in Konkan.

Prominent candidates include state PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal from Nashik, State Water Resources minister Sunil Tatkare from Raigad, Union Minister for telecom Milind Deora from Mumbai South and CWC member AICC general secretary Gurudas Kamat from Mumbai North West.
Out of the total 3,17,39,442 voters, 1,70,20,383 are men and 1,46,22,713 are women. The others category has 700 and service 95,646 voters.
There are 12 constituencies with more than 16 candidates.

Aurangabad has the highest number of 27 candidates while Nandurbar has the lowest number of nine contestants. Thane with 20,72,476 voters is the largest parliamentary seat while Mumbai South central with 14,46,979 is the smallest.

There are 121 candidates from registered political parties other than recognised national and state parties.
BJP is contesting 11, Shiv Sena eight, Congress ten, NCP eight, MNS seven, CPI 2 , CPM 3. BSP is contesting all the 19 seats.