Maha polls: Over 18 per cent electorate cast votes till 11 AM

The average voter turnout across 288 constituencies of Maharashtra, where polling is underway, stood at 18.73 percent till 11 AM today.
The highest voter turnout was witnessed in Kagal constituency of Kolhapur district at 43.82 percent while the lowest was at Bramhapuri constituency in Chandrapur district, (9.4 percent) till 11 AM, officials said.
About 8.35 crore voters in the state will be sealing the fate of 4,119 candidates including prominent ones like former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, former deputy CM Ajit Pawar former ministers R R Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal of NCP, Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Khadse, Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde of BJP, Subhash Desai, Suresh Jain and Deepak Kesarkar of Shiv Sena, former ministers Patangrao Kadam, Shivajirao Moghe and Rajendra Darda Congress and Bala Nandgaonkar of MNS.

Of the 4,119 candidates in the electoral fray, 3843 are male and 276 women. Of the 288 constituencies, including 36 constituencies in Mumbai, 234 are general, 29 reserved for scheduled castes and 25 for scheduled tribes.
Out of the total 83538114 voters, 44026401 are men and 39363011 are women. There are 984 voters in the "others" category. The number of service voters is 147718.
While Nanded South has the maximum 39 candidates, Akole and Guhagar have the minimum number at five candidates each.
BJP has fielded 280 candidates, BSP 260, CPI 34, CPM 19, Congress 287, NCP 278, Shiv Sena 282 and MNS 219.

Registered parties other than recognised state and national parties have fielded 761 candidates. There are 1699 independents also in the poll arena.