Maharashtra zilla elections in the parish: 67% polling in Nagpur, counting today.

NAGPUR: The election for Nagpur Zilla Parishad and panchayat samitis witnessed around 67% polling on Tuesday. The counting will be held on Wednesday and the picture will be clear by the afternoon though final results are officially declared in the evening.
There were no untoward incidents in the district. Police had taken preventive action against 135 anti-social elements before polling. There were very few complaints regarding the malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs). However, many people complained about errors in voters’ lists.
Complaints were received by the administration that names of some people in polling booths of Mansar-Shitalwadi circle were missing. Similar complaints were received from Nagardhan circle.
The maximum enthusiasm among voters was seen in Mouda and Kuhi talukas, which witnessed over 60% polling by 3.30 pm. The figure for Mouda taluka was 62.42% while that of Kuhi was 62.51%. Against this Nagpur Rural taluka, which has a lot of semi-urban areas witnessed only 41.78% voting.
Anjana Wakde (95) voted at the polling booth at Kolbaswami junior college, Dhapewada. She told the media that she had voted in every election since she was 21 (the previous minimum age for voting). Mira Bagde, a 70-year-old physically challenged woman, voted at Pipla village in the afternoon. She came with her family members in a car.
Each voter had to cast two votes – one for ZP member and one for PS member. Such type of multiple voting is now common in local body elections.
Counting will be held at 13 tehsil offices. Some 2,000 government staffers have been deployed for counting duty. There will be 16 EVMs on each counting table. As the same EVM contained a list of ZP and PS candidates, the counting process is simpler this time and is expected to be faster.
The first result is expected by 12 noon. By around noon results of 13 ZP circles and 26, PS will be declared. As one round will take two hours the final tally will be known between 6 pm and 8 pm.
Akola ZP witnessed around 56% voting. Most seats are witnessing a quadrangular fight between Congress-NCP, Shiv Sena, BJP and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). The VBA’s earlier avatar BRP-BMS has been in power in Akola ZP since years. This time another government may come to power.
Washim ZP witnessed around 65% voting. There is no alliance between Congress and NCP in this district. The fight here too is quadrangular between Congress, NCP, BJP and Sena.