Polling begins peacefully in Maharashtra

Polling for the Maharashtra assembly elections began peacefully amidst tight security on Tuesday morning, an election official said.

Industrialist Anil Ambani were among the early risers who turned up to vote. Ambani cast his vote at BD Somani school in Cuffe Parade.

Meanwhile, Bandra (E) Congress candidate Janardhan Chandurkar was held late last night for distributing cash.

Mumbai and Thane account for 60 (Mumbai 36, Thane 24) of the 288 assembly seats.

Nearly 7.60 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 84,136 polling stations across the state to elect 288 representatives from 3,559 contenders, including 211 women.

While 8 mainstream, recognised parties are in the fray, the others include small, regional groups and independents - including many rebels, challenging the prospects of official candidates.u00a0

In the previous elections (2004), the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party had won 139 seats while the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (SS-BJP) secured 119 seats and the rest, including independents bagged 30 seats.u00a0

Among the most eagerly watched seats would be Amravati where Rajendrasingh Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil is contesting against a prominent Congress rebel and a farmer's widow Bebitai Bai, from Wani in Yavatmal - both in east Maharashtra.u00a0

In Western Maharashtra, an interesting contest is taking place in Osmanabad where Jagjitsinh Patil of NCP is pitted against Shiv Sena's Omraje Nimbalkar. Patil is the son of NCP MP Padamsinh Patil, accused of killing a Congress leader Pavanraje Nimbalkar, whose son, Omraje is now contesting the same seat on a Sena ticket.u00a0

Besides, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde's daughter Praniti is contesting from Solapur, while Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's son Amit is standing from Latur.u00a0

There are kith and kin of many other political leaders, ministers, MPs, legislators, etc, in the state. There are 64 candidates, including 7 in Mumbai, who have been shown as absolutely "penniless" as per their affidavits filed with the EC.