11 Maharashtra LS Seats to Hold Riveting Battle in Phase 3; Baramati in Focus

As many as 258 candidates, including nominees from national and regional parties, are in the poll ring.In Baramati in Pune district, the home turf of the powerful Pawar family, sitting MP Supriya Sule is taking on her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar in what will be a riveting poll battle.Prominent contestants also include royal scions Shahu Chhatrapati of the Congress in Kolhapur and BJPs Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara as well Union minister Narayan Rane of the BJP in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.Altogether 2.09 crore people are eligible to vote in the third phase for which 23,036 polling centres have been set up, the official said.

Polling for 11 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held on Tuesday with the spotlight firmly on the high-stakes battle in Baramati, where Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is pitted against Sunetra Pawar, the wife of the veteran leader's estranged nephew and Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

Polling in these constituencies, spread across western Maharashtra, Konkan and Marathwada regions, will begin at 7 am and end at 6 pm at more than 23,000 polling centres set up for the third phase of the general elections, an election official said on Monday.

The seats where polling will take place on May 7 are Baramati, Raigad, Osmanabad, Latur (SC), Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Hatkanangale. As many as 258 candidates, including nominees from national and regional parties, are in the poll ring.

In Baramati in Pune district, the home turf of the powerful Pawar family, sitting MP Supriya Sule is taking on her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar in what will be a riveting poll battle.

Prominent contestants also include royal scions Shahu Chhatrapati of the Congress in Kolhapur and BJP's Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara as well Union minister Narayan Rane of the BJP in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.

Altogether 2.09 crore people are eligible to vote in the third phase for which 23,036 polling centres have been set up, the official said. These include 1,07,64,741 male voters, 1,02,26,946 female electors and 929 from the third gender, he said.

In the Marathwada region, Osmanabad (Dharashiv) will see a direct fight between the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Shiv Sena (UBT), while in Latur (SC), where 28 candidates are in the fray, the main contest is between the Congress (Shivajirao Kalge) and the BJP (Sudhakar Shrangare). Narsinghrao Udgirkar is the candidate of Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in Latur.

In Latur, where 19.77 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their constitutional right, nearly 8,500 election staffers will be on duty across 2,125 booths. This Scheduled Caste-reserved seat in central Maharashtra consists of Loha (Nanded), Latur Rural, Latur City, Ahmedpur, Udgir and Nilanga assembly segments.

Of these six assembly seats, three are with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (Latur Rural, Latur City, Ahmedpur) and two with the ruling bloc Mahayuti, (Nilanga and Udgir). Shyamsunder Shinde, the MLA from Loha in Nanded district, is from the Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWPI).

In the Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency, 31 nominees are in the ring, but the main fight is between Archana Patil (NCP) and sitting MP Omprakash Rajenimbalkar (Shiv Sena-UBT). Bhausaheb Andhalkar is the VBA candidate in Osmanabad.

Osmanabad has 20.04 lakh registered voters and they can exercise their franchise across 2,139 booths, where 9,905 polling officials will be on duty. This central Maharashtra seat has six assembly segments -- Ausa, Omerga, Tuljapur, Osmanabad, Paranda and Barshi of neighbouring Solapur district. Of these, five are with Mahayuti (BJP and Shiv Sena). Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh (80).

In the fourth phase on May 13, a total of 2.28 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 298 candidates in 11 Lok Sabha seats -- Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Shirdi and Beed.

Prominent candidates in the fourth phase include Minister of State for railways Raosaheb Danve in Jalna and BJP's Pankaja Munde in Beed.

The 13 Lok Sabha seats where polling will be held in the fifth and last phase in the state are Dhule, Dindori, 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.

Prominent candidates in the fifth phase include Union minister Piyush Goyal, lawyer-politician Ujjwal Nikam, both of the BJP, and Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad.

Polling was held on April 19 in the first phase of the general elections in Ramtek (SC), Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) and Chandrapur seats. On April 26, polling was held in the second phase of elections in Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim, Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani Lok Sabha constituencies.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)