Glam Bombay fails to vote. Maximum city Mumbai disappointed candidates and political parties alike even though encouraging voting figures were recorded elsewhere as 19 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra went to the polls on Thursday in the third and final phase of voting in the state.
Despite the presence of industrialists, businessmen, filmstars and celebrities, polling remained sluggish in Mumbai’s six constituencies.
This was in sharp contrast to the tribal constituency of Nandurbar which recorded 47 percent voting followed by Dindori at 45 and Raigad at 43 percent till late afternoon.
Of the six parliamentary constituencies in the western metropolis, Mumbai North recorded the highest turnout of around 41 percent, Mumbai North West 38 percent, Mumbai North East 35 percent, Mumbai South Central 33 percent, Mumbai North Central 36 percent and Mumbai South 29 percent.
The consolation was a high turnout in the minority pockets of Mumbai, with Muslims making it a point to come out with their families to exercise their franchise.
All the four seats in neighbouring Thane recorded a low turnout, with Bhiwandi notching just 25 percent, following by Thane at 26, Kalyan at 27 and Palghar at 30 percent. Elsewhere in the state, Dhule recorded 39 percent, Jalgaon 37, Raver 39, Jalna 42, Aurangabad 35 and Nashik 40.
Over 3.17 crore voters were eligible to elect their representatives from a total of 338 candidates, including 24 women and 119 independents.
Some of the prominent candidates trying their luck Thursday were: union minister Milind Deora, former minister Gurudas Kamat, Sanjay Nirupam, state Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, activists Medha Patkar, Mayank Gandhi and Vijay Pandhare and Bollywood personalities Mahesh Manjrekar, Kamaal Khan and Rakhi Sawant.
Aurangabad has the maximum number of 27 candidates, while Nandurbar has just nine contenders.
The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Aam Aadmi Party are contesting all 19 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party have 11 candidates each.
The Congress has put up 10 nominees, the Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena eight each, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena seven, Communist Party (Marxist) three and Communist Party of India two.
The largest constituency Thane in terms of electorate has 2.07 million voters, while Mumbai South Central is the smallest with just 1.44 million voters.
The 19 constituencies where voting was held 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.
Polling in the first two phases was held April 10 for 10 constituencies and April 17 for 19 constituencies.
Up to 70 percent electors voted in Tamil Nadu’s 39 Lok Sabha constituencies with the election coming to an end at 6 p.m., said the Election Commission.
According to election officials, voters already in the queue would be allowed to vote while nobody will be allowed to join the line new.
The polling percentage in the state stood at 70 percent out of over 55 million voters at 5 p.m. The poll officials said the final voting percentage would be known latter.
There are 845 contestants belonging to political parties and independents in the fray.
Polling started at 7 a.m. with leaders of various political parties, movie actors and people from various walks of life exercised their ballot power.
Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, A. Vijayakant of DMDK, Vaiko of MDMK and leaders of other political parties voted.
Tamil movie actor Rajinikanth was one of the early voters. Other actors like Kamal Haasan, Ajith and his wife Shalini, Senthil and Vijay also exercised their franchise.
AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa told reporters after voting: “I request all the political parties and public to cooperate with the Election Commission to ensure peaceful and fair voting.”
Asked about the action taken by the Election Commission on the complaints made by the DMK against rival AIADMK, Karunanidhi told reporters: “No action seems to have been taken.”
The DMK Wednesday complained to the poll panel about the AIADMK distributing Rs.3,000 in cash for every vote and urged the panel to take action to curb the malpractice.
The party also complained that police were supporting the AIADMK in the distribution of cash to voters.
Karunanidhi hoped his party would win more seats this time than the 18 of the total 39 in 2009.
Of the electorate, 27 million are women and nearly 13 percent are in the age group of 18 to 25 years.
As many as 845 candidates are in the fray for the 39 Lok Sabha seats while 14 have thrown their hats in the by-poll for the Alandur assembly seat.
Voting in Tamil Nadu is being held in a single phase at over 60,000 polling stations, of which 9,226 have been identified as sensitive.
About 150,000 security personnel have been deployed in the state.
Many voters headed for the polling stations right after their morning walk. “The polling process is smooth. The voters’ queues moved briskly,” V. Nitya, a voter in South Chennai constituency said.
At several polling stations, electronic voting machines did not function initially, delaying the balloting.