Maharashtra: 72% voter turnout for 3rd phase of local body polls

The tentative voter turn out for the third phase of local body elections, in which polling took place for 19 municipal councils and two nagar panchayats in Maharashtra on Sunday, was 72.76%, officials said.

The voting took place in Aurangabad, Nanded, Bhandara and Gadchiroli districts. 1,947 candidates were in fray for 409 seats, whereas there were 111 candidates for the direct elections to the 19 posts of municipal council president in this phase, officials from State Election Commission (SEC) of Maharashtra said. "The tentative voter turn out for the third phase was 72.76%," officials added.

"For a total of 5,16,478 voters, 683 polling booths were established. Counting of votes at all these places will start from 10 AM tomorrow," they added. The election to the Desaiganj municipal council in Gadchiroli has already attracted a lot of attention. The Maharashtra Election Commission has countermanded the election to one ward of the municipal council after Rashtriya Samaj Paksha president and state Dairy Development Mahadev Jankar allegedly tried to pressurise a poll official and influencing the election process. However, Jankar has denied the allegation.