Colaba records lowest voter turnout in Maharashtra

The Karveer assembly constituency in western Maharashtra's Kolhapur district witnessed highest polling percentage, while the Colaba segment in south Mumbai recorded the lowest voter turnout, as per final voting figures released by the election officials on Wednesday.

Karveer registered 83.6 per cent polling while Colaba saw a dismal 35.88 per cent voters turning up to exercise their franchise, despite polling day being declared a public holiday.

The overall polling percentage in the state was 60.03, the officials said.

On Tuesday, the commission had said around 60 per cent polling was recorded in the state. Armori constituency in Naxal-infested Gadchiroli district recorded 64.85 per cent polling, an indication that voters had braved Maoists' threat to disrupt election process.

The polling percentage is four per cent more than during Lok Sabha polls six months ago.

Turn-out of urban voters in Pune district was much less than the one witnessed in rural areas in Tuesday's's assembly polling. While overall polling in the whole district was 54.67, Pune city comprising eight assembly constituencies recorded just 45.77 per cent as against 67.22 per cent in the rural areas according to the final figures released by the district election office in Pune on Wednesday.

The city had recorded 48 per cent polling in the last Lok Sabha election on May 15. The Indapur assembly constituency from where Maharashtra Cooperation minister Harshwardhan Patil was the Congress nominee, saw maximum voting at 76 per cent in the entire district.

The Pune Cantonment assembly segment recorded the minimum polling at 33.98 per cent.

All the seven assembly segments in Yavatmal district recorded an average of 63 percent polling, the District Retuning Officer and District Collector Sanjay Deshmukh said.

The election was peaceful and there was no untoward incident any where in 2185 polling stations of seven assembly constituencies, he said. The polling recorded in the seven assembly segments are - Wani 70 percent, Ralegaon 64 percent, Yavatmal 51 percent, Digras 72 percent, Arni 64 percent, Pusad 63 percent and Umarkhed 62 percent respectively, the official said.

While in Raigad district recorded around 67.77 percent polling, the district official said.

The polling statistics in all the four Lok Sabha segments in Thane district - Thane, Kalyan, Bhiwandi and Palghar has been the same. In the Thane Lok Sabha segment a total of 9,17,526 votes had been polled of which 57 percent - 5,23,247 male voters cast their votes and the rest were female, the election official said.

In the Kalyan Lok Sabha segment a total of 7,27,385 votes had been polled of which 58 percent were male and the rest female voters, they said. lghar parliamentary segment recorded a total of 8,89,352 votes of which 53 pcent female voters, the officials said.