Voting for all 288 seats in the Maharashtra legislative assembly scheduled for today, November 20, ended at 6 pm.As many as 4,136 candidates were running in the elections overall.
Jharkhand, where cthe second phase of assembly elections polling took place across 38 constituencies in 12 districts, also saw the polls close at 6 pm. In some sensitive areas, the voting booths were shut at 4 pm.
A total of 528 candidates were in the fray for the 38 seats in this phase, including 55 women, one third-gender candidate, and 472 male candidates.
Maharashtra recorded a 58.22 per cent voter turnout as of 5 pm, with polling for all 288 assembly constituencies concluding peacefully in a single phase. Despite extensive measures by the Election Commission to boost voter participation, urban centers such as Mumbai, Pune, and Thane continued to report low turnout– a sign of persistent urban apathy.
Jharkhand witnessed a higher turnout of 67.59 per cent across 38 assembly constituencies in 12 districts, surpassing the 67.04 per cent turnout in these constituencies during the 2019 elections. The
Election Commission said it had ensured 100 per cent enrollment of 1.78 lakh members of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in the electoral roll.
Voting was peaceful, even in Left Wing Extremism-affected regions in both states.
Now that the voting has ended, the restriction on exit polls prediction put in place by the Election Commission of India is set to be lifted soon. The first predictions are expected to trickle in around 6:30 pm. You can find the latest exit poll predictions
here.
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