News Details

Polling commenced on Monday morning for 13 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, including six in Mumbai, marking the fifth and final phase of general elections in the state, an official reported.

Voting began at 7 a.m. across 24,553 polling centers and will continue until 6 p.m., the official stated.

A total of 2.46 crore individuals are eligible to vote, determining the fate of 264 candidates in constituencies including Mumbai North, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai South, Thane, Kalyan, Bhiwandi, Palghar, Nashik, Dindori, and Dhule.

Notable candidates include Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Bharati Pawar, and Kapil Patil from the BJP, which also nominated lawyer Ujjwal Nikam. Other prominent figures in the race are Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad.

The primary contest is between the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising Shiv Sena, BJP, and NCP, and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, which includes Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and NCP (SP).

Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar, where 10 of the 13 seats are situated, form part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, one of the most urbanized areas in the country.

Overall, 2,46,69,544 people are eligible to vote, including 1,31,38,526 men, 1,15,28,278 women, and 2,740 individuals from the third gender.

To ensure smooth voting in Mumbai, the police have deployed approximately 30,000 personnel, including 2,752 officers and 27,460 other staff, along with three units of the riot control police, an official said.

Polling for the other 35 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra was conducted in four phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, and May 13. The vote count is scheduled for June 4.

In the previous four phases, the average voter turnout was 62.9 percent, according to an election official.