Lok Sabha elections 2024: Polling begins in 8 LS constituencies in Maharashtra

Polling began on Friday morning in eight Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 an official saidVoting started at 7 am in Buldhana Akola Amravati Wardha and YavatmalWashim seats in the west Vidarbha region and Hingoli Nanded and Parbhani constituencies in Marathwada and will end at 6 pm the official saidAs many as 149 crore voters including 7721374 men 7204106 women and 432 persons from the thirdgender category are eligible to cast their ballot across 16589 polling centres to seal the fate of 204 candidates in the fray in the eight seatsOf the 204 candidates in the fray there are 21 in Buldhana 15 in Akola 37 in Amravati 24 in Wardha 17 in YavatmalWashim 33 in Hingoli 23 in Nanded and 34 contestants in Parbhani seatOn April 19 five seats in east Vidarbha Nagpur Ramtek Chandrapur BhandaraGondia and GadchiroliChimur went to polls registering a voter turnout of 6370 per centBuldhana YavatmalWashim and Hingoli are seeing a direct contest between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Uddhav Thackerays Shiv Sena UBTThe undivided Shiv Sena contested the last general elections in the state in alliance with the BJP It split in 2022 after Shinde led a rebellion sunk the then Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA government and sided with the BJP to become the CMIn Buldhana sitting Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav is pitted against Narendra Khedekar of Sena UBTThe Shiv Sena has nominated Rajashri Patil in YavatmalWashim dropping sitting MP Bhavana Gawli Patil is pitted against Sanjay Deshmukh of the Thackerayled partyIn Hingoli Rajashtri Patils husband and sitting MP Hemant Patil was replaced by the Shiv Sena which gave the ticket to Baburao Kohalikar The Sena nominee is contesting against Nagesh Patil Ashtikar of Sena UBTIn Parbhani Mahadev Jankar of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha is contesting against MP Sanjay Jadhav nominated by the Shiv Sena UBTJankar has been backed by the ruling Mahayuti alliance comprising BJP Shiv Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawarled NCPDr B R Ambedkars grandson Prakash Ambedkar who heads the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi VBA has fielded candidates in seven seats including himself from Akola His brother Anandraj Ambedkar is in the fray in Amravati as a Republican Sena nomineeIn Akola the contest is between Anup Dhotre of BJP and Abhay Patil of Congress with Prakash Ambedkar as the third candidateAmravati is seeing a battle between MP Navneet Rana now contesting as a BJP nominee against Balwant Wankhede of Congress Dinesh Bub is the Prahar Janshakti Party candidate The Prahar party which has two legislators in the assembly is an ally of the ruling coalitionIn Wardha there is a fight between former Congress MLA Amar Kale contesting on the symbol of the NCP Sharadchandra Pawar a man blowing turha a traditional trumpet against BJP MP Ramdas TadasIn Nanded BJP MP Pratap Chikhalikar is pitted against Congress nominee Vasant ChavanMaharashtra which has 48 Lok Sabha seats the second highest after Uttar Pradesh will vote in three more phases between May 7 and May 20According to the Election Commission of India 88 constituencies across 13 states and union territories are set to go for the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024Kerala has the highest number of constituencies as all 20 seats will poll today followed by Karnataka with 14 seats The other states that will go to poll on Friday include Assam Bihar Uttar Pradesh Chhattisgarh Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Rajasthan West Bengal Tripura and Manipur The poll for the Jammu parliamentary seat will also be held on Friday As many as 1202 candidates including 1098 males and 102 females are in the frayThe first phase of voting for the sevenphased Lok Sabha elections 2024 the worlds largest electoral exercise was held on April 19 in 102 constituencies across 21 states and UTs According to the Election Commission the voter turnout registered was over 62 per cent The third phase election will be held on May 7With inputs from Agencies