Campaigning in 17 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra ends

Campaigning in 17 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra ended today. Apart from six constituencies in Mumbai, the polling in Dhule, Nandurbar, Dindori, Nashik, Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Maval, Shirur and Shirdi are slated for April 29. Nearly 3.11 crore voters will cast their votes in 33,314 polling booths spread over 102 assembly segments come in these 17 Lok Sabha seats.

The Election Commission of India has deployed 1.7 lakh electronic voting machines (EVMs) and 43,309 voter verifiable paper audit trail machines in these constituencies. Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, polling already took place in 31 seats.

Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, Republican Party of Indian (A) promoted Mahayuti, the MahaGathbandhan comprising Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and 54 other smaller parties and organisations and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) have fielded their candidates in these Lok Sabha seats.

These parties had run an high voltage campaign in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state chief minister Nitin Gadkari, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, VBA founder Prakash Ambedkar, RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athawale travelled addressed rallies while the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on his own addressed couple of rallies appealing the voters that PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah did not remain in power after the Lok Sabha election.

Six seats in Greater Mumbai will witness straight fights. In south Mumbai the city Congress chief Milind Deora is pitted against Shiv Sena nominee Arvind Sawan, BJP candidate Poonam Mahajan against Congress candidate Priya Dutt in north central Mumbai, former city unit chief Sanjay Nirupam against Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar in north west Mumbai, Bollywood star turned Congress nominee Urmila Matondkar against BJP MP Gopal Shetty in north Mumbai, former MP and Congress nominee Eknath Gaikwad against Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale in south central Mumbai and former MP and NCP nominee Sanjay Patil against BJP nominee Manoj Kotak in north east Mumbai where BJP dropped incumbent MP Kirit Somaiya following Shiv Sena's strong objection.

Some of the other key fights include former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's son and NCP nominee Parth Pawar is fielded against Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne in Maval, TV serial artist and NCP nominee Amol Kolhe against three term MP and Shiv Sena nominee Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil in Shirur, former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal's nephew Sameer Bhujbal against Shiv Sena MP Hemant Godse in Nashik, NCP nominee Dhanraj Mahale against BJP nominee Bharati Pawar in Dindori, Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare against former MP and NCP candidate Anand Paranjape in Thane, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde against NCP nominee Balaji Patil in Kalyan and BJP MP Kapil Patil against Congress candidate Suresh Taware in Bhiwandi.

Shirdi constituency, which hails from the sugarcane rich Ahmednagar district, is hogging headlines after Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who recently stepped down as leader of opposition in the state assembly, shared dais with Shiv Sena leaders to campaign for the saffron party's nominee Sadashiv Lokhande who is pitted against Congress candidate Bhausaheb Kamble. In Dhule constituency, the Congress candidate Kunal Patil is taking on BJP nominee and union minister Subhash Bhamre while BJP MP Heena Gavit is pitted against Congress nominee KC Padvi in Nandurbar. Both these districts are tribal dominated.