In a final push to garner votes, leaders of several parties held rallies and programmes as campaigning ended Sunday for elections in 11 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried its best by inducting many leaders of undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Western Maharashtra to wrest the region. While the party partially became successful, the challenge this time for BJP and its allies in Mahayuti is far bigger as Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has fielded strong candidates at many places.
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As a result, leaders from both sides campaigned hard with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding eight rallies, besides other public meetings from home minister Amit Shah, deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.
At the same time, from MVA too, Rahul Gandhi campaigned in some parts, while Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray held multiple public meetings.
The seats where polling in the third phase of the general elections will take place on May 7 are Baramati, Raigad, Osmanabad, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Hatkanangale.
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 in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.
Altogether 2.09 crore persons are eligible to vote for 258 candidates in the third phase, for which 23,036 polling centres have been set up, an election official said.
There are 1,07,64,741 male voters, 1,02,26,946 female voters and 929 from the third gender.
On the last day of campaign, Shinde held a road show in Kolhapur for Shiv Sena candidate Sanjay Mandlik while deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis held rallies in Pandharpur and Phaltan under Madha seat for BJP nominee Ranjeetsinh Nimbalkar.
