Maharashtra Lok Sabha election result 2019: Counting of votes in 48 seats begins

The counting for 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra started at 8 AM on Thursday. The political fate of 867 candidates of state contesting General election 2019 in the state is expected to be decided by late evening of May 23.

The Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra are Bhandara–Gondiya, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli–Chimur, Nagpur, Ramtek, Wardha, Yavatmal–Washim, Akola, Beed, Amravati, Buldhana, Hingoli, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Solapur, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Baramati, Hatkanangle, Jalgaon, Jalna , Kolhapur, Madha, Pune, Raigad, Ratnagiri–Sindhudurg, Raver, Sangli, Satara, Bhiwandi, Dhule, Dindori , Kalyan , Maval , Mumbai North , Mumbai North Central, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North West , Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, Nandurbar, Nashik, Palghar, Shirdi, Shirur and Thane Lok Sabha seats.

Union minister and BJP leader Nitin Gadkari, Bollywood actress and Congress candidate Urmila Matondkar, BJP’s Poonam Mahajan, Pritam Gopinath Munde, NCP’s Supriya Sule are some of the big names contesting the Lok Sabha election from the state.

Some of the prominent constituencies are Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South, Dhule, Amravati, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, Kalyan, Thane, Pune, Baramati, Shirdi, Latur and Kolhapur.

In 2014, the BJP-led NDA had swept the state winning 42 Lok Sabha seats out of 48. The key contest in Maharashtra for Lok Sabha election 2019 is between NDA (BJP+Shiv Sena), Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance.

Elections to 542 seats of the 543-member Lok Sabha, panning over seven phases, ended Sunday (May) 19 since the Election Commission deferred election for Vellore in Tamil Nadu over allegations of misuse of money power.

As per the Supreme Court's instruction to the Election Commission (EC), the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips tally will also be taken into account while counting the votes this time. Paper slips of five VVPATs per assembly segment in every parliamentary segment will be counted. The vote tallying will begin after the last round of counting which will lead to delay in the results by at least five hours or more.

As per the Supreme Court's instruction to the Election Commission (EC), the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips tally will also be taken into account while counting the votes this time. Paper slips of five VVPATs per assembly segment in every parliamentary segment will be counted. The vote tallying will begin after the last round of counting which will lead to delay in the results by at least five hours or more.

In Maharashtra, electors voted for 48 Lok Sabha seats in the first (April 11), second (April 18), third (April 23) and fourth (April 29) phase. In the first phase people voted for seven Lok Sabha seats, 10 for the second phase, 14 in the third phase and 17 for the fourth phase.

Maharashtra recorded 63.04 percent voter  turn out in the first phase. In the second phase, the state recorded 62.85 percent voter turnout. In the third phase the state recorded 62.36 percent voter turnout while in the fourth phase the state recorded 57.33 percent voter  turnout.