The relatively lowest percentage of voter turnout in Baramati has heightened the suspense over the outcome of the battle royale fought out in this prestigious constituency. Only 47.84 % of voting was reported from this seat where NCP (SP) head honcho Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar of the NCP fought a proxy war. Ajit Pawar fielded his wife Sunetra, a political novice, against sitting M.P. Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar.
Despite the bitter battle, the number of persons who turned out to vote was disappointingly low. Both the Pawars had left no stone unturned to mobilise their supporters, but not without much success. It appears that the fatigue factor vis-a-vis the Pawars has set in the constituency in western Maharashtra.
Also, many voters were reportedly afraid of upsetting either of the Pawars. Interestingly, Supriya Sule is reported to have called on her rival Sunetra after the polling was over. For both the Pawars the contest was a do-or-die affair. A defeat would put a firm end to the political career of Pawar Sr, who is already 83 years old. While a setback for Ajit Pawar will adversely impact his position in the MahaYuti also put a question mark on the future of his party, the NCP, with regard to the assembly elections.
Overall only 54.09 % voting was reported from the 11 constituencies which went to the polls in the third phase held on Tuesday. The percentage of voting in Phase I and II was 63.71 and 62.71 respectively.
The relatively low turnout is worrying the ruling MahaYuti alliance of which the BJP is the main component. Kolhapur with 63.71% and Hatkanagale with 62.18 %. reported a healthy turnout.
Madha witnessed 50 %, Solapur 49.17 %, Raigad 50.31 %, Sangli 52.56 %, Osmanabad 56.84 %, Latur 55.38 %, Satara 54.11 % and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg 53.75 %. Union minister Narayan Rane was locked in a close contest with Vinayak Raut, a close confidant of Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena – UBT).
Overall the third phase of voting went off peacefully except for an incident of the burning of the electronic voting machine (EVM) in Solapur. A man named Dadaso Manohar Talekar went for voting in Bagalwadi in the afternoon. After casting his vote, Talekar took out a bottle, poured flammable liquid on the machine and set it on fire. Thereafter, he tried to run away from the booth but election officers, people and police apprehended him.
The election officer Amit Mali said there were1,302 voters in the booth out of which 410 voters had cast their votes and the votes were secured in the machine. A new machine was installed and the voting process was resumed.
In another incident a man was stabbed to death and three people were injured outside a polling booth in Osmanabad district. The incident happened at Patasgavi village in Bhoom taluka of Osmanabad. According to reports, one Samadhan Patil was fatally attacked by the accused Gaurav Naiknavare. The accused is absconding. The murder was apparently the result of rivalry between two groups who were ferrying voters to the poll booth.
