Amid high security, polling began this morning to elect the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Over 1.29 lakh state police and Central paramilitary forces (CPMF) have been deployed across the state to ensure fair and peaceful poll, State's DGP for elections A N Roy said.
Adequate CPMF contingents have been deployed in Naxal-hit Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts of Vidarbha to thwart any attempt by the Maoists to disrupt the election process, he said, without divulging their numbers for strategic reasons.
On October eight, 17 policemen were killed in an ambush by the Naxals in Gadchiroli district.
The fate of 3,559 candidates, including Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, his deputy Chhagan Bhujbal and 37 ministers will be decided by an electorate of 7,56,34,525.
There are 1,820 Independents, mostly rebels in fray. The number of women candidates is 211.
There are 84,136 polling stations. "We are fully prepared and all measures have been put in place to ensure a free, fair and incident-free voting day," he said.
Adequate security measures have been made, Chakravorty said, adding about 4,78,115 polling staff has been put on poll duty.
The highest number of 28 candidates are in Aurangabad (east) constituency in Marathwada, while the lowest number of four candidates each in Dahanu (Thane district) and Islampur (Sangli district) Assembly constituencies.
Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which polled over 12 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha elections in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik, is seen as a factor which is likely to influence the state politics after results.
The voting to elect the 12th Legislative Assembly which began at 0700 hours will conclude at 1700 hours.
Central paramilitary forces are deployed on a large scale in the Naxal infested districts of Gadchiroli and Chandrapur in Vidarbha, DGP (Elections) A N Roy said.
"I cannot reveal the number of policemen and central paramilitary forces we have deployed, but every polling booth will have at least one policeman," Roy added.
"At the district level, booths lying in sensitive and hyper sensitive areas have been identified, and superintendent of police will decide on deployment in consultation with district collector accordingly," he said.
Sons and daughters of leaders like Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Gopinath Munde and late Pramod Mahajan are making their electoral debut.
The highest number of 28 candidates are in Aurangabad (east) constituency in Marathwada, while the lowest number of four candidates each in Dahanu (Thane district) and Islampur (Sangli district) Assembly constituencies.
Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which polled over 12 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha elections in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik, is seen as a factor which is likely to influence the state politics after results.
The voting to elect the 12th Legislative Assembly which began at 0700 hours will conclude at 1700 hours.
Central paramilitary forces are deployed on a large scale in the Naxal infested districts of Gadchiroli and Chandrapur in Vidarbha, DGP (Elections) A N Roy said.
"I cannot reveal the number of policemen and central paramilitary forces we have deployed, but every polling booth will have at least one policeman," Roy added.
"At the district level, booths lying in sensitive and hyper sensitive areas have been identified, and superintendent of police will decide on deployment in consultation with district collector accordingly," he said.
Sons and daughters of leaders like Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Gopinath Munde and late Pramod Mahajan are making their electoral debut.
Amit, Deshmukh's eldest son is in fray from Latur city,Pranati, Shinde's youngest daughter is the Congress candidate from Solapur city central, Munde's daughter Pankaja Palve is in fray from her father's bastion Parli while Poonam Mahajan, Munde's niece and daughter of BJP leader late Pramod Mahajan is testing political waters from Ghatkopar in Mumbai.
But the most high-profile of all is President Pratibha Patil's son Rajendra Shekhawat, who is making a debut in electoral politics from Amravati, a seat represented by his parents earlier.
Its impressive performance in the Lok Sabha elections in May this year has enthused the Congress to go for a hattrick in the state.
Congress has been ruling the state for the last ten years in alliance with the NCP.
If MNS could hurt the chances of Opposition Sena-BJP combine to wrest power, the ruling coalition has also to worry about the large number of rebels as also the newly-formed Republican Left Democratic Front-led by Ramdas Athawale, the alliance which was earlier with the Congress-NCP combine.
Polling in Thane began on a dull note where more than 67 lakh voters are to elect their 24 representatives to the state assembly.
As the polling began only few voters were seen at the booths in various parts of the city for nearly an hour.
However, small queues was seen in other booths in the urban parts. The rural parts did not have much turnout even after one hour of polling began, political activists said.
The fate of 281 candidates will be decided in this polls. Various parts of Thane city along with Rabodi, Mumbra, Bhiwandi and Kausa also witnessed peaceful polls like the rural Thane's Vasai, Virar and Talasari region.
Following sporadic poll-related incidences the police bandobust has been stepped up, police said.
Polling was peaceful in the first two hours.
Poll began peacefully in all the 47 assembly seats from the Nashik revenue region.
An estimated 1.19 crore electorate spreaded in five districts of Nashik, Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar and Ahmednagar in the division will decide fate of 530 candidates.
Nashik has 15 seats, Dhule 5, Jalgaon 11, Ahmednagar 12, nandubar 4.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, State Minister of Public Health Shobhatai Bachhav, Bhujbal's son Pankaj are amongst the 159 prominent candidates in the fray from Nashik district.
District administration has made elaborate security arrangement and deployed adequate staff to conduct smooth and fair polling.