Maharashtra: 6.82 pc voter turnout till 9 am

A voter turnout of 6.82 per cent was recorded in the first two hours in Maharashtra's 17 seats Monday as polling for the fourth and last phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state got underway.

Polling began at 7 am and long queues were seen outside many booths.

BJP MP Poonam Mahajan, industrialist Anil Ambani, Congress nominee Urmila Matondkar and actor Rekha were among the early voters in Mumbai.

State education minister Vinod Tawde, BJP candidate from Mumhai-North East Manoj Kotak and Congress nominee from Mumbai-Central Eknath Gaikwad also exercised their franchise in the initial hours.

The voting figures till 9 am are as follows:

Nandurbar-8.73 per cent, Dhule-6.31 per cent, Dindori -7.28 per cent, Nashik-6.69 per cent, Palghar-7.86 per cent, Bhiwandi-6.21 per cent, Kalyan-5 per cent, Thane-6.77 per cent, Mumbai-North- 7.85 per cent, Mumbai-North West 6.90 per cent, Mumbai-North East- 7 per cent, Mumbai-North Central 5.98 per cent, Mumbai-South Central-6.45 per cent, Mumbai- South 5.91 per cent, Maval-6.67 per cent, Shirur-7.07 per cent and Shirdi 7.28 per cent.

As many as 40 polling booths in these constituencies, including 26 in suburban Mumbai, are being managed women.

As many as 3.11 crore voters spread across the Mumbai metropolitan region and northern and western Maharashtra are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 323 candidates in the fray in these 17 seats.