Mumbai: A provisional voter turnout of 63.89 per cent was recorded on Tuesday in the elections held for five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, viewed as a prestige battle between Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and the opposition BJP.
The five seats comprised three graduates and two teachers” constituencies.
Maximum voter turnout of 82.91% was recorded in the Amravati Teachers” constituency till 5 pm, followed by 70.44% in the Pune Teachers” constituency.
“An average voter turnout of 63.89 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in elections to three graduates” constituencies and two teachers” constituencies,” an Election Commission official said, adding that the final voting percentage will be known later.
An average voter turnout of 61.08% was recorded for election to Aurangabad Graduates” constituency, 54.76% in Nagpur Graduates” constituency, and 50.30% in Pune Graduates constituency, a release said.
Among the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners, the NCP and Congress are contesting two seats each and the Shiv Sena has fielded its candidate in another seat.
The opposition BJP is contesting four seats and an Independent supported by the party is in the fray in another seat.
The seats that went to polls are- Pune Division Graduates” constituency, Nagpur Division Graduates” constituency, Aurangabad Division Graduates” constituency, Amravati Division Teachers” constituency and Pune Division Teachers” constituency.
Three MLCs from the graduates” constituencies, namely Satish Chavan (NCP), Chandrakant Patil (BJP) and Anil Sole (BJP), and two Independent MLCs from teachers” constituencies, Shrikant Deshpande and Dattratray Sawant, retired on July 19.
In Nagpur Division Graduates” seat, the fight is between Sandeep Joshi (BJP) and Abhijeet Vanjari (Congress), and in Aurangabad Division Graduates” seat, Shirish Boralkar (BJP) and Satish Chavan (NCP) are up against each other.
In Amravati Division Teachers” constituency, Nitin Dhande (BJP) and Shrikant Deshpande (Shiv Sena) squared off against each other. In Pune Division Graduates” constituency, the main contest was between Jayant Asgaonkar (Congress) and Jitendra Pawar (Independent backed by BJP).
According to Pune district administration, there are 4.26 lakh voters for the graduates” constituency and 72,545 voters for the teachers” constituency in the Pune region.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gandkari cast their votes in Nagpur on Tuesday.
Talking to reporters after exercising his franchise, Fadnavis said he was hopeful that his party will achieve success in these polls.
Polling was also held on Tuesday for the Dhule- Nandurbar local bodies” constituency bypoll, which was necessitated after sitting MLC Ambrish Patel quit the Congress to join the BJP.
The counting of votes will be held on Thursday.
Maha MLC polls: 63.89% average turnout in five constituencies