Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections: Marathwada, Solapur voters decide today

AURANGABAD: Nearly 1.30 crore electors from six constituencies of

Marathwada

and Solapur will brave sweltering heat on Thursday to decide their Parliamentarian for the next five years.


Voting for the second phase of the

Lok Sabha elections

will take place at nearly 14,652

polling booths

, some of which will save the VVPAT units for the first time.

The election officials in these constituencies are hoping that people will step out in large numbers to set new high in voter turnout. However, the met department forecast of a gradual rise of 3-5°C in the temperatures over the next three days could cast a shadow.

Voters will be deciding the fate of former chief ministers Ashok Chavan in Nanded and Sushilkumar Shinde in Solapur. Also, BJP stalwart late Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pritam is hoping that Beed voters support her as enthusiastically as they did five years ago. Pritam set the record for the higher win margin in the 2014 bypoll.

Prakash Ambedkar will face two sets of electors from Akola and Solapur on Thursday. In Solapur, BJP has put up Lingayat seer Jai Siddheshwar Shivaraj.

Late CM Vilasrao Deshmukh’s family has left no stone unturned to woo voters back to their camp during the poll campaign period in Latur.

Voters in Parbhani have to pick between sitting Shiv Sena and NCP nominees, though other parties like Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi-MIM and the CPI have fielded their candidates. Cousins Omraje Nimbalkar and Rana Jagjitsingh Patil from Osmanabad are keeping their fingers crossed over whom the voters accept this time around.

Voters in Hingoli have turncoat Subhash Wankhede pitted against newbie Sena nominee Hemant Patil.

During the poll season, the police have taken preventive action against 20,000 suspect in the six Marathwada constituencies, seized about 30,000 litres of liquor worth Rs 40 lakh from these seats. In addition to this, cash of about Rs 8 crore has been also seized.

Three constituencies from Vidarbha – Buldhana, Akola and Amravati – will also vote on Thursday.

The election officials will be using indelible ink to mark the voters.

Voters can use mobile apps for the ECI to trace their names or pose grievances.