Average voting matches ’14 figures in Marathwada, Vidarbha, Solapur

AURANGABAD/SOLAPUR: People participated enthusiastically in the voting process in the

six constituencies in Marathwada

that went to the polls on Thursday. This, despite the temperature hovering around the 40 degree Celsius mark in the region.

Beed voter Aliajgar Maymoon

said his white scarf protected him from the scorching sun as he queued up at a polling booth.

An elderly farmer in the same constituency had no qualms walking some distance to reach his polling booth, saying he is now used to going afar on foot to fetch water daily. “Exercising our franchise is the only way to ensure a change in the situation,” he said.

State’s additional chief electoral officer Dilip Shinde told TOI that voting remained by and large peaceful in all 10 constituencies in the state on Thursday. The estimated turnout at the close of polling at 6pm was: Osmanabad (62.75%), Latur (62.02%), Parbhani(62.47%), Hingoli (63.38%), Beed (64.37%), Nanded(62.97%),

Solapur

(59.57%), Akola (60%), Amravati (62%) and Buldhana (62.5%).

The fortunes of former chief minister Ashok Chavan of the Congress (Nanded) and the BJP’s Pritam Munde (Beed) hinge around the outcome in Marathwada. Apart from them, Parbhani’s Shiv Sena nominee is seeking re-election while facing a stiff challenge from the NCP’s Rajesh Vitekar.

The BJP, Sena and Congress dropped their sitting MPs in Latur, Osmanabad and Hingoli for this election. The Congress replaced Rajiv Satav in Hingoli with a former Shiv Sena MP, Subhash Wankhede, who was defeated by Satav by a slender margin in 2014. In Latur, the BJP opted for Sudhakar Shrungare instead of Sunil Gaikwad to face Machhindra Kamant of the Congress. In Osmanabad, the Sena dropped Ravindra Gaikwad for Omraje Nimbalkar to take on NCP’s Rana Jagajitsinh Patil.

Interestingly, both Sunil Gaikwad and Ravindra Gaikwad had won the last elections by huge margins of 2.5 lakh and 2.3 lakh votes respectively.

The late Gopinath Munde had defeated Suresh Dhas (who is now a BJP MLC in Beed) by a margin of 1.36 lakh votes. Upon his death, the BJP fielded his second daughter Pritam in the byelection in Beed. The NCP did not field a nominee as a mark of respect to Munde. Pritam Munde won the election by 6,92,245 votes, the highest margin in the country. This time, she faces a formidable challenge from the NCP’s Bajrang Sonwane.

The only Congress victories in the state in 2014 were recorded in Marathwada, with Ashok Chavan defeating BJP’s D B Patil by 81,455 votes and Rajiv Satav scraping past Subhash Wankhede by1,614 votes.

In

Vidarbha

, the Naxal-hit Gadchiroli district where Maoists had called for a boycott of voting registered the highest turnout of 71.77%. Five incidents of violence, including two blasts, had taken place on polling day here. The Nagpur seat, where no untoward incident was registered, had the lowest voting percentage of 54.74%.