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Vidarbha witnesses big queues at booths

Brisk polling was witnessed in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region on Thursday, when the first phase of the three-phase polling in the state got underway.

The fate of 10 Lok Sabha candidates was sealed by evening.

According to Election Commission officials, Vidarbha saw 60 per cent polling on Thursday, despite soaring temperatures which topped 40 degrees Celsius in many places. There was heavy security around the region, especially in the militancy-hit districts of the region. No major untoward incidents were reported from any parts of the region.

Vidarbha in eastern Maharashtra is one of the most backward regions of the state. Hundreds of farmers have committed suicide in the cotton belt following the failure of crops over the past decade. In the 2009 elections, the Congress had won four of the 10 seats in the region, while its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got one seat. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won two seats and its ally the Shiv Sena had notched three seats. About 16.3 million voters were entitled to exercise their franchise in Vidarbha, which saw 201 candidates in the fray. Prominent candidates who contested the election include Nitin Gadkari, the former BJP president, and veteran Congressman and seven-time MP Vilas Muttemwar (both from Nagpur), and Praful Patel, the NCP leader and union minister (Bhandara-Gondia).

Naxalites, the extreme left-wing militants, are active in many parts of Vidarbha including the tribal-dominated districts of Gadchiroli, Gondia and Chandrapur. Consequently, elaborate security measures have been taken to ensure free and fair polling with thousands of armed personnel from the central and state reserve forces and the rapid action force spread across sensitive constituencies.

Voting in the remaining 38 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra will be held on April 17 and April 24 (19 seats each). All 10 seats of western Maharashtra, eight in Marathawada and one from the Konkan will see polling on April 17, while all 10 seats of Mumbai region, two from the Konkan, three from Nashik region and four from Khandesh will go to the polls on April 24.