Campaign for second phase of LS polling in Maharashtra concludes

Mumbai: Campaign for the second phase of polling in Maharashtra where nearly 3.25 crore voters will be sealing the fate of 358 candidates including stalwarts like Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, ex-Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and BJP leader Gopinath Munde, came to an end on Tuesday.

About 3,24,27,558 electorate in 19 constituencies of western Maharashtra, Marathwada, Konkan will cast their votes in the state on April 17. Ten constituencies of Vidarbha went to polls in the first phase on April 10 and more than 60 per cent electorate have cast their votes.

In the second phase, there are 358 candidates in fray, including 24 women and 201 independents. The voters in the second phase include 1,69,54,391 men and 1,53,77,605 women. There are 306 voters in the others category and 95,256 in the service category.

The constituencies which will go to polls are - Hingoli, Nanded, Beed, Parbhani, Osmanabad and Latur in Marathwada, Pune, Baramati, Shirur, Maval, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Hathkanangale in Western Maharashtra, Shirdi, Ahmednagar in North Maharashtra and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg in Konkan.

The generation next of Maharashtra politics - Supriya Sule (Baramati) and Nilesh Rane (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg) - are seeking a second term.

Indian Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav, who is currently a legislator, is seeking to enter Lok Sabha from Hingoli. Vishwajit Kadam, who is the state Youth Congress chief and son of Congress veteran Patangrao Kadam, is also making foray from Pune. Beed constituency has maximum 39 candidates, while Baramati has the lowest nine.

The largest constituency electorate wise is Maval with 19,46,127 voters. The smallest constituency electorate wise is Ratnagiri Sindhudurg (13,63,957).

Union Home Minister Shinde is contesting from Solapur. Ashok Chavan, who had to quit three years ago over the alleged involvement in Adarsh Housing Scam, is the Congress candidate from his home turf of Nanded, while BJP leader Gopinath Munde is seeking a second term as MP from Beed.

Union Minister of State, Pratik Patil (Cong) is seeking a second term from Sangli. BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray have campaigned for their respective party candidates.

Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency has seen NCP defying Sharad Pawar's dikat to the local party unit to campaign for Congress candidate Nilesh Rane. While in Pune, much depends on whether sitting MP Suresh Kalmadi remains true to his word of not harming the electoral prospects of party candidate Vishwajit Kadam.

BSP has fielded candidates in all the 19 seats, followed by NCP which is contesting 10, Congress 9, Shiv Sena 8, BJP 7, MNS 2, CPI and CPM one each.

There are 36,879 polling stations, where 44,254 EVMs will be used for voting. Besides, nearly 2,76,592 polling personnel will be deployed during the voting process.