Voting commenced on Tuesday morning at 7 for 11 of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha seats. A closely watched contest is underway in Baramati, where Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar, is facing off against Sunetra Pawar, wife of Maharashtra's Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. Baramati has been an NCP stronghold since 1999, with Sharad Pawar representing the constituency from 1999 to 2009, followed by Supriya Sule.
Today marks the voting for the third phase in Baramati, Raigad, Osmanabad, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, and Hatkanangale. Polling began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm across the 23,036 designated polling centers.
This phase features notable candidates like Shahu Chhatrapati of the Congress in Kolhapur, Udayanraje Bhosale of the BJP in Satara, and Union Minister Narayan Rane in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.
A total of 2.09 crore people are eligible to vote for 258 candidates in this phase, with 23,036 polling centers set up. The voter demographics include 1,07,64,741 male voters, 1,02,26,946 female voters, and 929 belonging to the third gender.
Looking ahead to the fourth phase on May 13, 2.28 crore voters will decide the fate of 298 candidates across 11 constituencies: Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Shirdi, and Beed. Notable figures in this phase include Union Minister Raosaheb Danve and BJP's Pankaja Munde.
In the fifth and final phase, 13 Lok Sabha seats are up for polling in Maharashtra, including Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Raver, Dindori, and Nashik in North Maharashtra, and Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central, and Mumbai South.
Notable candidates in this phase include BJP's Piyush Goyal, lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, and Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad.