Maha: Polling impacted in Marathwada, Vidarbha due to technical glitches

Mumbai, April 26 (IANS) Polling was impacted in Maharashtra's Marathwada and Vidarbha districts due to technical snags in the EVMs.

After EVMs malfunctioned in Marathwada's Hingoli and Nanded constituencies, and Vidarbha's Akola, Amaravati and Wardha constituencies, the district election personnel swung into action to replace them or repair them to have smooth and hassle-free polling in these constituencies.

In Hingoli, the district election personnel found technical problems in 39 ballot machines, 16 control units and 25 VVPAT machines. However, after the corrective steps, the polling was resumed.

In the Amaravati constituency, the EVM met with a technical issue in the polling station situated in Rukmininangar school. The EVM was not functional for 15 minutes which impacted the polling.

At another polling station from the Wadarpura area of Amravati, the polling was affected due to the technical snag in the EVM.

In Umara village of Akot tehsil from Akola district, the EVM was non-functional but it was replaced, after which the polling began.

In Takli village polling station in Nanded district, the polling was affected for one hour due to EVM snag.

BJP nominee and sitting MP Ramdas Tadas from Wardha constituency, along with his family, reached Devil's Yashwant Girls High School to cast their votes. However, they along with other voters, had to wait for over 40 minutes due to technical snag in the EVM. The polling was restarted after it was repaired.

Till 9 a.m., 7.45 per cent 7.45 per cent polling was recorded in eight constituencies of Maharashtra.

Wardha recorded 7.18 per cent polling followed by Akola (7.17 per cent), Amravati (6.34 per cent), Buldhana (6.61 per cent), Hingoli (7.23 per cent), Nanded (7.73 per cent), Parbhani (9.72 per cent) and Yavatmal - Washim (7.23 per cent).

A total of 1,49, 25, 912 eligible voters will exercise their voting rights in 16,589 polling stations in these eight constituencies.

In Nanded, the BJP has renominated Pratap Patil Chikhalikar against Congress nominee Vasant Chavan. Chikhalikar had defeated Ashok Chavan who had contested as the Congress nominee in the 2019 elections but during this election, Chavan, who became the Rajya Sabha member after joining BJP, had sought votes for Chikhalikar.

In Akola, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi founder Prakash Ambedkar, who could not agree to a sharing arrangement with Maha Vikas Aghadi partners, is in the fray against BJP nominee Anup Mhatre and Congress candidate Abhay Patil.

In Amaravati, the BJP nominated Navneet Rana, who was elected as an independent in the 2019 elections, against Congress nominee Balwant Wankhede. The Prahar Janashakti Party founder and former minister Bachhu Kadu has fielded his party’s nominee in this constituency.

In Wardha, NCP SP has nominated youth Amara Kale against BJP's two-term MP Ramdas Tadas while in Yavatmal-Washim there is a fight between Shiv Sena nominee Rajashri Patil and Shiv Sena UBT candidate Sanjay Deshmukh.

In Hingoli, the Shiv Sena nominee Baburao Kadam Kohalikar is pitted against Shiv Sena UBT candidate Nagesh Patil Ashitkar. In Parbhani, the NCP led by Ajit Pawar left the seat to MahaYuti ally Rashtriya Samaj Paksha founder Mahadev Jankar who faces challenge from the Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee and sitting MP Sanjay Jadhav.

In Buldhana there is a fight between two factions of Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena nominee and sitting MP Prataprao Jadhav is pitted against Shiv Sena UBT candidate Narendra Khedekar.