56.42 pc turnout recorded in eight seats of Maharashtra

A voter turnout of 5642 per cent was recorded in eight constituencies of Maharashtra in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024 on Friday officials said reported news agency PTIVoting was held between 7 am and 6 pm in Akola Amravati Buldhana Wardha and YavatmalWashim seats in Vidarbha eastern Maharashtra and Hingoli Nanded and Parbhani constituencies in the central Marathwada region Election officials said Wardha recorded 6265 per cent turnout Amravati 5746 YavatmalWashim 5677 Parbhani 5379 Akola 5412 Nanded 5957 Buldhana 5588 and Hingoli 5203 reported PTIFinal figures are likely to be updated by Saturday they added No untoward incident was reported during polling in these constituencies and the process went off largely in a peaceful manner they said reported PTIAt Rampuri in Nanded Lok Sabha constituency a 26yearold man allegedly damaged an electronic voting machine EVM by hitting it with an iron object when he came to cast his vote around 4 pm a police official said He was detained and during his questioning he told the police he wanted a profarmer and prolabourer government he saidIn Hingoli 39 EVMs were found to be faulty during the mock drill carried out by authorities ahead of voting and these were replaced the official saidAccording to officials there were a total of 204 candidates in the fray 21 in Buldhana 15 in Akola 37 in Amravati 24 in Wardha 17 in YavatmalWashim 33 in Hingoli 23 in Nanded and 34 in ParbhaniAs many as 149 crore voters 7721374 men 7204106 women and 432 persons from third gender category were eligible to cast ballots across 16589 polling centres Former chief minister Ashok Chavan who recently switched over from the Congress to the BJP voted along with his family members in the initial hours in Nanded On April 19 five seats in eastern Vidarbha iquest Nagpur Ramtek Chandrapur BhandaraGondia and GadchiroliChimur iquest went to polls registering a voter turnout of 6370 per cent Buldhana YavatmalWashim and Hingoli are seeing a direct contest between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackerays Shiv Sena UBT The undivided Shiv Sena contested the last general elections in the state in alliance with the BJPIt split in 2022 after Shinde led a rebellion toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA government and joined hands with the BJP to become the CMIn Buldhana sitting Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav is pitted against Narendra Khedekar of Sena UBT The Shiv Sena has nominated Rajashri Patil in YavatmalWashim dropping sitting MP Bhavana Gawli Patil is pitted against Sanjay Deshmukh of the Thackerayled partyIn Hingoli Rajashtri Patils husband and sitting MP Hemant Patil was replaced by the Shiv Sena which gave the ticket to Baburao Kohalikar The Sena nominee is contesting against Nagesh Patil Ashtikar of Sena UBTIn Parbhani Mahadev Jankar of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha is contesting against MP Sanjay Jadhav nominated by the Shiv Sena UBTJankar has been backed by the ruling Mahayuti alliance comprising BJP Shiv Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawarled NCP Dr B R Ambedkars grandson Prakash Ambedkar who heads the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi VBA has fielded candidates in seven seats including himself from Akola His brother Anandraj Ambedkar is in the fray in Amravati as a Republican Sena nomineeIn Akola the contest is between Anup Dhotre of BJP and Abhay Patil of Congress with Prakash Ambedkar as the third candidate Amravati is seeing a battle between MP Navneet Rana now contesting as a BJP nominee against Balwant Wankhede of Congress Dinesh Bub is the Prahar Janshakti Party candidateThe Prahar party which has two legislators in the assembly is an ally of the ruling coalition In Wardha the fight is between former Congress MLA Amar Kale contesting the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on the symbol of the NCP Sharadchandra Pawar a man blowing turha a traditional trumpet against BJP MP Ramdas Tadas In Nanded BJP MP Pratap Chikhalikar is pitted against Congress nominee Vasant ChavanMaharashtra which has 48 Lok Sabha seats the second highest after Uttar Pradeshs 80 will vote in three more phases between May 7 and May 20With inputs from PTI