Maharashtra Phase 3 Elections: Voting for 11 Lok Sabha seats tomorrow; all eyes on Baramati

Voting for 11 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held on Tuesday. All eyes are on the high-stakes battle in Baramati, where Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is taking on Sunetra Pawar, wife of Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar. Baramati is a stronghold of the NCP, which has held the seat since 1999. Sharad Pawar held the seat from 1999 to 2009, and since then his daughter Supriya Sule, has represented the seat in the Lok Sabha.  

The seats where voting will take place in the third phase on May 7 are Baramati, Raigad, Osmanabad, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, and Hatkanangale. Polling will begin at 7 am and end at 6 pm at the 23,036 polling centres, set up for the third phase. 

In the third phase, royal scions Shahu Chhatrapati of the Congress in Kolhapur and BJP's Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara as well as Union Minister Narayan Rane in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg are in the fray.

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. 

There are 1,07,64,741 male voters, 1,02,26,946 female voters, and 929 from the third gender in the third phase. In the fourth phase on May 13, a total of 2.28 crore voters will decide the fate of 298 candidates in 11 seats, namely Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Shirdi and Beed Lok Sabha constituencies. In the fourth phase, the fate of Union Minister Raosaheb Danve and BJP's Pankaja Munde will be sealed. 

The 13 Lok Sabha seats where polling will be held in the fifth and last phase in the state are Dhule, Dindori, and Nashik in North Maharashtra and Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central, and Mumbai South. 

BJP's Piyush Goyal, and lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad will be in the fray in the fifth phase. 

(With inputs from PTI)