LS polls in Maharashtra: 18.18% turnout till 11 am; Pawars among early voters

Mumbai: A voter turnout of 18.18 per cent was recorded till 11 am on Tuesday as polling was underway in 11 of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra during the third phase of the general elections, as per data shared by authorities.

Latur registered 20.74 per cent polling, Sangli 16.61 per cent, Baramati 14.64 per cent, Hathkanangale 20.74 per cent, Kolhapur 23.77 per cent, Madha 15.11 per cent, Osmanabad 17.06 per cent, Raigad 17.18 per cent, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg 21.19 per cent, Satara 18.94 per cent and Solapur 15.69 per cent.

Among the early voters included state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, his wife Sunetra Pawar, who is the NCP candidate from Baramati, and his mother Asha Pawar.

They cast their votes at a polling booth in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in Pune district.

Sunetra Pawar is pitted against Supriya Sule, the sitting MP from Baramati.

NCP (SP) head Sharad Pawar, his wife Pratibha Pawar, daughter Supriya Sule and her family, MLA Rohit Pawar and his family also voted in Baramati.

Actor-couple Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia Deshmukh cast their votes in Latur, while Union minister Narayan Rane voted in Sindhudurg.

Ritesh Deshmukh is the son of Congress leader and former state chief minister late Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Rane is the BJP candidate from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat.

Prominent contestants also include royal scions Shahu Chhatrapati of the Congress in Kolhapur and BJP's Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara.

After casting their votes, Riteish Deshmukh and his wife said it is an important day and appealed to the people to exercise their franchise.

"Family members should help the elderly persons who cannot go to the polling booths on their own. I have come from Mumbai to Latur to cast my vote," Riteish Deshmukh said.

"The temperature is high but we can bear it for a day for our country," he added.

Congress MLA and former minister Amit Deshmukh and his wife also cast their votes at a polling booth in a village in Latur.

"Voters should exercise their democratic right and participate in this electoral process. Our country's democracy is the best in the world, vote and strengthen the democracy," the legislator, who is the brother of Riteish Deshmukh, appealed to the people.

Voting began at 7 am across the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

A total of 2.09 crore persons are eligible to vote for 258 candidates in the third phase, for which 23,036 polling centres have been set up, an election official said.

There are 1,07,64,741 male voters, 1,02,26,946 female voters and 929 from the third gender.