Nagpur: Voting picks up on a slow pace in Nagpur and rest of Vidarbha owing to the raining that has been widespread in the region since Wednesday morning. As reported till 11am Nagpur District has Voter turnaround of 13.07 %. However the initial phase is expected to clear out soon and the numbers may improve by afternoon. Many prominent leaders, government officials and aware citizens were seen braving the weather and turning up at the polling booths to cast their votes.
BJP candidate from South West was prominent in exercising his franchise along with large number of his supporters. Till morning many officials including Divisional Commissioner Anup Kumar, District Collector Abhishek Krishna, former NIT Chairman Praveen Darade, upper tribal commissioner Pallavi Darade were foremost in pressing the buttons for the candidates of their choice.
Fadnavis confident of majority
After casting his vote Fadnavis told media persons that his party was confident of getting a majority mandate and coming to power. On the issue of Shiv Sena dragging the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s father, Fadnavis said that such kind of references are in bad taste and do not represent Maharashtrian culture. Saamna is the mouthpiece of Shiv Sena. BJP has recently dissolved its 25-year-old alliance with Shiv Sena over seat sharing arrangement.
Lack of arrangement mars polling booths
Reports said that lack of proper arrangements at some of the polling booths led the voters to return without reaching the ballots. Reports from a polling booth at Martin Nagar in Jaripatka ward no. 1, say that a woman despite having voting card with her could not find her name in the voting list. Surprisingly her photograph was found placed under another woman’s name.
Raged over the glitch the woman and her husband left the booth without voting. Their protest was also registered by the concerned polling booth chief.
Polling began at 7 a.m. in Nagpur and will conclude at 6 p.m. Counting of votes will be held on October 19, poll officials said. The elections will elect 288 members of the 13th Assembly in the State. No untoward incident has been reported in the last three hours. About 8.35 crore voters are eligible to vote.
