As the campaign for second phase of polling in Maharashtra draws to a close tomorrow, in which nearly 3.25 crore voters are expected to decide the fate of 358 candidates, leaders are working feverishly to canvass and take out rallies to ensure maximum support for their parties.
Several political bigwigs, including Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde are in the fray in the second phase of polling.
Total number of 3,24,27,558 electors in 19 constituencies in western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Konkan will exercise their franchise during the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra on April 17.
The voters 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.
Ten constituencies of Vidarbha have already voted 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 constituencies that would 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 making a debut in electoral politics from Hingoli.
Vishwajit Kadam, who is the state Youth Congress chief and son of Congress veteran Patangrao Kadam, is also making his debut from Pune.
There are 11 constituencies with more than 16 candidates, while at one seat there are more than 32 candidates. Beed constituency has maximum 39 candidates, while Baramati has the lowest nine.
The largest constituency electorate wise is Maval with 19,46,127 voters while the smallest is Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg with 13,63,957 electors.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is contesting from Solapur. Ashok Chavan, who had to quit three years ago over the alleged involvement in Adarsh Housing Scam, is 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 (Congress) 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 not to harm 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 nine, Shiv Sena eight, BJP seven, MNS two, 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.
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