Maharashtra local body election saw 35.05 per cent turnout till 1:30 pm on Tuesday, officials said. Polling remained peaceful except for incidents in Raigad, Akola and Jalgaon. Allegations of bogus voting surfaced in Buldhana, while a video of MLA Santosh Bangar entering a booth triggered a probe
Representational Image. File Pic
An estimated 35.05 per cent of voters exercised their franchise till 1.30 pm on Tuesday as voting was underway for elections in 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Maharashtra, news agency PTI reported, quoting officials.
Polling was peaceful, barring at some places in Mahad (Raigad), Akot (Akola), and Muktainagar (Jalgaon), where there was tension among workers of different parties accusing each other of violating rules.
Following reports of rule violations, election officials launched a probe after a video purportedly showed Shiv Sena MLA Santosh Bangar entering a polling booth while a woman was casting her vote during the local bodies election in Hingoli district, PTI reported.
Polling across various booths began at 7.30 am and will conclude around 5.30 pm on Tuesday. As per data from the State Election Commission, 35.05 per cent of the electors cast their votes till 1.30 pm.
The Maharashtra Congress on Tuesday said, “During the Maharashtra Local Body Elections, two suspected bogus voters were caught at a polling station in Buldhana barely an hour and a half after voting began for the municipal council elections there."
Meanwhile, a man allegedly attempted to cast a vote in the name of local resident Vaibhav Deshmukh at the Gandhi Primary School polling centre in ward no 15 of Buldhana, PTI reported. The individual is said to be a resident of Kothali in Motala taluka, the Congress alleged in a statement.
Another person accompanying him was also detained, while Congress functionaries claimed that more individuals from Kothali and Ibrahimpur had been brought to Buldhana city with the intention of casting fraudulent votes.
The opposition party alleged that Gaikwad was bringing people from rural areas to cast "bogus" votes in the Buldhana Municipal Council elections.
Counting of votes will be taken up on December 21, as per the directive of the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench on Tuesday, after the SEC last week rescheduled elections in 24 local bodies to December 20 due to certain apparent irregularities in the process.
Highlighting the issues during the election, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis criticised the postponement of the 24 local body polls and said the SEC had interpreted the law in the wrong way.
Voting was underway across 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in the first phase of the local body elections in Maharashtra, where 6,042 seats and 264 posts of council presidents are up for grabs.
(With inputs from PTI)
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