Late-afternoon surge helps Mumbai score 52.66% turnout

Mumbai improved its poll record with over 52% voters casting vote in its six constituencies on Wednesday. This is an increase of 11% over the voter turn out of 2009 general elections. It is far less than New Delhi which saw 65% voting turnout. However, a large number of voters failed to vote as their names were missing.

The list included HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, former union minister and veteran lawyer Ram Jethmalani and Marathi actor Atul Kulkarni. Both the ruling Congress-NCP alliance and the saffron Shiv sena-BJP combine saw the rise in voting as a favourable trend for themselves.

The ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, which had won all the six seats in 2009 elections, hoped that the rise in voting percentage will help them to retain their supremacy. State Congress unit chief Manikrao Thakre rejected the presence of Modi wave in Mumbai and also in rest of Maharashtra.

However, Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine, which was quite worried over low turnout till 3 pm, claimed that the higher turnout is a good news for their candidates. ''This is a vote for change,'' BJP's Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar said.

"I have been now told that I have to re-fill the form for the next elections. Its surprising that my servant has received his election voting card but my entire family's name was missing. I was the first to reach the booth to vote and found that our names are missing,'' Parekh said.

As far as 13 other constituencies in the state, over 50% polling was reported. An average 55.53% voting took place in all 19 constituencies, a rise of 9% compared to 2009 polls. The voting percentage in six Mumbai seats include north Mumbai (52%), north west (52%), north east (50%), north central (53%), south Central (52%) and south (55%).

Further, 62% voting took place in the tribal dominated Nandurbar, Dhule (59%), Jalgaon (50%), Raver (58%), Jalna (63%), Aurangabad (59%), Dindori (64%), Nashik (64%), Palghar (58%), Bhiwandi (60%), Kalyan (43%), Thane (42%) and Raigad (64%).

Among others who voted were State Bank of India's chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, who cast her vote in the Malabar Hill locality, where her official residence is located. N Chandrasekaran, who heads the country's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services, also voted in Worli early morning.

Further, the vice chairman and chief executive of HDFC, Keki Mistry,exercised his right to franchise in south Mumbai along with his family. Former banker and Aam Aadmi Party nominee from South Mumbai, Meera Sanyal also voted before going out in her constituency to oversee polling process. Ajit Gulabchand, the chairman of infrastructure major HCC and a resident of Nariman Point in South Mumbai, also voted.