Mumbai:

The voter count in Mumbai has crossed the one crore mark, up from 98.95 lakh during the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, a civic official said.

At the time of the Lok Sabha polls, Mumbai had 98,95,602 eligible voters, including 25,16,667 in the island city and 74,64,974 in the suburban district, as per EC data.

The Maharashtra assembly polls are scheduled on November 20 and votes will be counted on November 23.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation chief Bhushan Gagrani said, “There are 1,02,29,708 voters in Mumbai for the assembly polls, comprising 25,43,610 in the island city and 76,86,098 in the suburban district. There are 54,67,361 men , 47,61,265 women and 1,082 are transgender persons.” “Of these, a total of 1,46,859 voters are above the age of 85 years and 23,928 are persons with disabilities. A total of 2,288 are overseas voters and 1,475 service voters,” said Gagrani, who is also Mumbai district election officer.

As per poll officials, a total of 2.91 lakh voters, including 53,372 in the island city and 2,37,715 in the suburban district, were added after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Besides, names of 43,020 voters were deleted, comprising 26,429 from the city and 16,591 from suburbs after the general elections.

Mumbai has 36 assembly constituencies –10 in the island city and 26 in the suburban district.

There are 410 candidates, including 105 in the island city and 315 in the suburban district.

A total of 10,117 voting booths have been set up, of which 2,538 are in the island city and 7,579 in the suburban district.

Speaking about security, Gagrani said the police department has presented a plan of deploying 25,696 personnel for the assembly elections in Mumbai.

“The city does not have any sensitive booth, though there are 76 critical polling booths out of a total of 10,117 voting booths at 2,085 locations. Of the 76 critical booths, 13 are in the island city and 63 in the suburban district,” he said.

As per poll officials, these booths have historically recorded less than 10 per cent of the average voter turnout in the past elections.

“In Mumbai, there will be 84 model polling stations, of which 38 each will be handled by women and young election staff. Eight will be handled by divyang staff,” Gagrani said.

Poll officials said the EC has acted upon 563 of 615 complaints filed through the C-Vigil app in Mumbai’s city and 564 of 623 in the suburban district.

In Mumbai city and suburban districts, eight cases each have been registered for poll code violations. Another 30 cognisable and non-cognisable offences have been registered, an official said.

“We have seized Rs 33 crore cash in the island city and Rs 12.60 crore in the suburbs. The value of precious metals seized in the city and suburban district stands at Rs 6.97 crore and Rs 238.67 crore, respectively. Besides this, freebies of Rs 2.62 crore and Rs 3.21 crore from the city and suburbs, respectively,” a poll official said.

Poll squads have seized 2,800 litres of alcohol valued at 12.89 lakh from the city and 39,385 litres of liquor costing Rs 1.10 crore from the suburban district.

Also, drugs of Rs 4.17 crore were seized from the city and of Rs 44.79 crore from the suburban district, the official said. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Mumbai recorded a turnout of 52.27 percent, lower than that in 2019, in the general elections on Monday amid sultry weather and complaints of delays in the polling process.

The constituency of Mumbai South, home to industrialists as well as high-ranking government officials, fared the worst with 47.7 percent voting.

In 2019, the polling percentage across the six Lok Sabha constituencies in the city was 55.38 per cent.

Mumbai North constituency witnessed 55.21 percent polling on Monday, Mumbai North Central 51.42 percent, Mumbai North East 53.75 percent, Mumbai North West 53.67 percent, Mumbai South 47.70 percent and Mumbai South Central 51.88 percent, as per the Election Commission’s data.

While at some places people who had turned up at polling booths early in the morning left without casting their vote after waiting in the line for a long time, Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray alleged that the process was slowed down deliberately.

Voters at many polling booths complained that they had to wait for more than an hour in the line to cast the vote.

A voter in Bimbisar Nagar in Goregaon East said, “I came to vote around noon, but it took nearly one and a half hours. I am a senior citizen and still came to vote, but it took longer than it had taken in 2019.” “There is a lot of enthusiasm among voters, but the Election Commission is acting in a partial manner. There is a delay by EC’s representatives in certain areas,” Uddhav Thackeray alleged at a press conference in the afternoon.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member who was standing in a queue at a polling centre in Malad area of Mumbai, said, “Nearly 2,000 voters are expected to vote at one booth. The EC should have provided two machines (EVMs) to increase the pace. It looks like the EC is discouraging people from voting. People who have been standing since 7.30 am are able to vote at 10 am.” 

Congress candidate from Mumbai North Central constituency Varsha Gaikwad said, “I have received complaints from voters that they do not have enough facilities at polling booths. Long queues and exposure to the heat are testing their patience. Some people have returned home without exercising their franchise.” High levels of humidity and a maximum temperature of 35 degrees Celsius added to the voters’ discomfort.

Union minister Piyush Goyal is pitted against Bhushan Patil of Congress in Mumbai North, Sanjay Dina Patil of Shiv sena (UBT) is in contest against Mihir Kotecha of the BJP in Mumbai North East, and Advocate Ujjwal Nikam of the BJP is pitted against Varsha Gaikwad of Congress in Mumbai North central.

Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) is fighting against Ravindra Waikar of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai North West, Anil Desai of Shiv sena (UBT) is facing off against Rahul Shewale of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai South Central and Arvind Sawant of Sena (UBT) is pitted against Yamini Jadhav of the Shiv Sena in Mumbai South.

Industrialists Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Nana Patekar, Shreyas Talpade, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Hema Malini, Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Ashok Saraf and Prashant Damle were prominent among those who cast their votes in Maharashtra’s capital.

Overall voting percentage in the 13 constituencies in Maharashtra where polling was held in the final phase of the elections in the state on Monday stood at 54.22.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)