Maharashtra: 57.22 pc polling in 2nd phase

An average 57.22 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm across 10 constituencies in Maharashtra which went to the polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday, an official said.

The final turnout in Thursday's polling in the state will be known later and could be higher, the official said.

In 2014, the average voting in these seats was 62.39 per cent.

Nanded Lok Sabha seat recorded 60.88 per cent voting, the highest in the second phase, followed by Hingoli at 60.69 per cent.

Parbhani recorded 58.50 per cent voting, Beed 58.44 per cent, Latur (SC) 57.94 per cent, Buldhana 57.09 per cent Osmanabad 57.04 per cent, Amravati (SC) 55.43 per cent, Akola 54.45 per cent, and Solapur (SC) 51.98 per cent, he said.

In Nanded, there were complaints that as many as 78 electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioned.

A total of 179 candidates were in the fray in these constituencies.

Beed had the maximum number of contestants - 36 - while 10 candidates contested from Latur.

Prominent figures in the fray were state Congress chief Ashok Chavan who is seeking another term from his hometurf Nanded, and former Union home minister and Congress veteran Sushilkumar Shinde who is contesting his "last election" from Solapur.

In Beed, the hometurf of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, his daughter Pritam Munde is seeking another term. She faces Bajrang Sonawane of the NCP.

In the 2014 elections, the NDA had won eight out of these ten seats, whereas the Congress had won two - Nanded and Hingoli.

A total of 62,700 EVMs and around 27,000 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines were used in Thursday's polling.

Dilip Shinde, additional State Electoral Officer, said that as voting continued till late at some centres, the polling percentage could increase up to 63 per cent.

There was no violence, barring stone-pelting at a police vehicle outside a polling centre in Parbhani, he said.

An FIR was registered against one Pranav Patil from Osmanabad for allegedly clicking pictures with a mobile phone while casting the vote. The case was filed as carrying mobile phone and shooting pictures while voting is a violation of law, Shinde said.

About a claim made by Prakash Ambedkar that some EVMs were faulty, Shinde said as per the Solapur collector, no such complaint has been filed.