India General Elections 2024: Mumbai sees 52.2 percent turnout; sultry weather and long queues test voters' patience

Mumbai recorded a turnout of 5227 percent lower than that in 2019 in the India General Elections 2024 on Monday amid sultry weather and complaints of delays in the polling process reported news agency PTIThe constituency of Mumbai South home to industrialists as well as highranking government officials fared the worst with 477 percent votingIn 2019 the polling percentage across the six Lok Sabha constituencies in the city was 5538 per centMumbai North constituency witnessed 5521 percent polling on Monday Mumbai North Central 5142 percent Mumbai North East 5375 percent Mumbai North West 5367 percent Mumbai South 4770 percent and Mumbai South Central 5188 percent as per the Election Commissions dataWhile at some places people who had turned up at polling booths early in the morning left without casting their vote after waiting in the line for a long time Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray alleged that the process was slowed down deliberatelyVoters at many polling booths complained that they had to wait for more than an hour in the line to cast the voteA voter in Bimbisar Nagar in Goregaon East told PTI I came to vote around noon but it took nearly one and a half hours I am a senior citizen and still came to vote but it took longer than it had taken in 2019There is a lot of enthusiasm among voters but the Election Commission is acting in a partial manner There is a delay by ECs representatives in certain areas Uddhav Thackeray alleged at a press conference in the afternoon reported PTIPriyanka Chaturvedi Sena UBT Rajya Sabha member who was standing in a queue at a polling centre in Malad area of Mumbai said Nearly 2000 voters are expected to vote at one booth The EC should have provided two machines EVMs to increase the pace It looks like the EC is discouraging people from voting People who have been standing since 730 am are able to vote at 10 am reported PTICongress candidate from Mumbai North Central constituency Varsha Gaikwad said I have received complaints from voters that they do not have enough facilities at polling booths Long queues and exposure to the heat are testing their patience Some people have returned home without exercising their franchise reported PTIHigh levels of humidity and a maximum temperature of 35 degrees Celsius added to the voters discomfortUnion minister Piyush Goyal is pitted against Bhushan Patil of Congress in Mumbai North Sanjay Dina Patil of Shiv sena UBT is in contest against Mihir Kotecha of the BJP in Mumbai North East and Advocate Ujjwal Nikam of the BJP is pitted against Varsha Gaikwad of Congress in Mumbai North centralAmol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena UBT is fighting against Ravindra Waikar of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai North West Anil Desai of Shiv sena UBT is facing off against Rahul Shewale of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai South Central and Arvind Sawant of Sena UBT is pitted against Yamini Jadhav of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai SouthIndustrialists Anil Ambani Mukesh Ambani Ratan Tata film stars Amitabh Bachchan Jaya Bachchan Nana Patekar Shreyas Talpade Salman Khan Aamir Khan Shah Rukh Khan Sanjay Dutt Madhuri Dixit Hema Malini Dharmendra Sunny Deol Ashok Saraf and Prashant Damle were prominent among those who cast their votes in Maharashtras capitalOverall voting percentage in the 13 constituencies in Maharashtra where polling was held in the final phase of the India General Elections 2024 in the state on Monday stood at 5422With inputs from PTI