Terminating the gap between estimation and reality, vote count for Maharashtra Assembly Poll gets going

Mumbai, October 24: With the state etsimating the outcome of the Assembly polls, counting of votes for Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha and Satara Lok Sabha bypoll, held on Monday, began at 8 am on Thursday.

 

While the exit polls have predicted a comfortable win for the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government in the state, the counting of votes for all the 288 Assembly segments began at 269 locations in the state.

 

 

"Around 25,000 personnel are deployed on counting duty", an election official said, adding police have also made adequate arrangements to ensure a smooth counting process. The polling held on Monday saw a voter turnout of 61.13 per cent, a dip from the 63.20 per cent recorded in 2014. The highest turnout, of 83.93 per cent, was reported in the Karveer assembly seat in Kolhapur, while the lowest was in south Mumbai's upmarket Colaba area at 40.11 per cent.

 

In the Satara Lok Sabha bypoll, also held on Monday, the voter turnout was 67.15 per cent. The bypoll was necessitated after NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosale quit the party and his Lok Sabha seat and joined the ruling BJP, which renominated him from the constituency.

 

A total of 3,239 candidates contested from the 288 seats, where the key contest was between the BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP alliances. Most exit polls, released immediately after polling ended, gave the ruling alliance a comfortable majority in the 288 member Assembly.

 

There were 8,98,39,600 eligible voters in the state for the Assembly polls, including 1,06,76,013 in the age group of 18 to 25 years. Nearly 6.5 lakh polling personnel were deployed at 96,661 polling booths across the state on election day.