Nagpur, 23 Oct

(HS): Polling started for electing five members to Legislative Council in

Maharashtra. Elections in two Teachers’ Constituencies and three Graduates Constituencies

began on Friday. The counting of votes is scheduled for October 27.

Both the running

Mega Alliance (Mahayuti) and Opposition Maha-Vikas Aghadi (NVA) are facing

rebellion and the outcome of the elections is difficult to predict, although

BJP-led Mahayuti has claimed victory in all the five constituencies. Polling

are in progress in Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad Graduates’ Constituencies, and

Pune and Amravati Teachers’ Constituencies. A total of 182 candidates are in

the fray for the five seats. The voters are required to mark their preferences

in the voting.

Voters in Nagpur are facing difficulties as location of their polling booths are far from their residentail address. In one reported case husband and wife (senior citizens) have been allocated different polling booths. In another case a voter was alloted polling centre which is about 17 km from his residence.

Registration of voters was also affected as the Election Commission did not allow submission of registration forms in bulk, which the aspirants used to submit earlier. Iindividually submission of forms affected the enrolment of voters. The registered voters during this election is less compared to the last election.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Ajay Vasant Mardikar