MUMBAI: Counting of votes in the Maharashtra assembly elections began Saturday morning, with all eyes on the outcome of the battle between the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti coalition and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, which is seeking to make a comeback.
The counting of votes commenced at 8 am in all the counting centres in the state, an election official said.
At the counting centres, officials first began verifying and counting the postal ballots, with the counting of EVM votes scheduled to start at 8.30 am. There will be a minimum of 20 rounds of counting in each assembly segment, an official said.
The final turnout in the polls, held on November 20, was 66.05 percent, up from 61.1 percent in 2019.
Counting of votes also began at 8 am for the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll, where 67.81 percent voting was recorded on November 20.
Kolhapur district led with 76.63 percent polling, followed by 75.26 percent in Gadchiroli, which has some Left Wing extremism-affected pockets, while the lowest was in Mumbai island city at 52.07 percent. Mumbai suburban district recorded 55.95 percent polling.
A total of 288 counting centres have been set up for the counting of votes.
A total of 288 counting observers are overseeing each assembly constituency, with two observers assigned to monitor counting in the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll, an official said.
The high volume of postal ballots has led to the establishment of 1,732 tables for postal ballot counting and 592 tables for the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) to ensure a smooth counting process across all assembly constituencies, the official said.
In the Mahayuti alliance, the BJP contested 149 assembly seats, Shiv Sena 81 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP fielded candidates in 59 constituencies.
In the MVA combine, the Congress fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95, and the NCP (SP) put up 86 candidates.
Parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), also contested, with BSP fielding 237 candidates and AIMIM putting up 17 candidates.
The number of candidates this time increased by 28 percent compared to the 2019 state assembly elections. This year, 4,136 candidates contested, up from 3,239 in the 2019 elections.
Among these candidates, 2,086 were independents. Rebels were in the fray in over 150 constituencies, with candidates from the Mahayuti and MVA contesting against their party’s official nominees.
There were 1,00,186 polling booths in Maharashtra this time, compared to 96,654 booths in the 2019 assembly elections.
Mumbai police have issued an order prohibiting any assembly of people in a 300-meter radius of all the 36 counting centres in the city, which comprises 36 assembly constituencies.
No person, other than an official engaged with the election process or public servant engaged in duty, shall loiter or form any assembly within 300 meters radius from any counting centre, a police official said.
The order is effective till midnight on November 24.
The majority mark in the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly is 145, the number any alliance or party needs to crack to be able to form government in the state.
The term of the present state assembly ends on November 26.
