Congress set to win Maharashtra elections

An estimated 66 per cent of the electorate on Tuesday exercised their franchise in assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh amidst sporadic violence in which one polling agent was killed.

Maharashtra registered 60 per cent turnout of voters while Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh saw a much higher polling of 66 per cent and 72 per cent respectively, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla told reporters in New Delhi.

Mumbai, the country's financial hub, and its suburbs saw a turnout of 50 per cent.

Exit polls by two television channels today projected that Maharashtra's ruling Congress-NCP alliance would emerge victorious in the state assembly elections and one of them predicted Congress victory in Haryana polls.

A 48-year-old polling agent of an independent candidate was killed in a clash with supporters of a Congress nominee in Gulha assembly constituency in Haryana's Kaithal district, a police official said.

Reports of firing and clashes between Congress and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supporters came in from Nima Kheri and other villages in Mewat district. Four people were injured.

Notwithstanding the massacre of 17 policemen five days ago and poll boycott call by Naxals in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, an estimated 55 per cent of electorate cast votes while neighbouring Gondia, also hit by Maoist menace, gave a stronger rebuff to the ultra-Left with a 68 per cent turnout.

Stray incidents of firing were seen in Gadchiroli district where polling could not take place at 22 polling station as the staff failed to reach the destinations because Naxals put up obstacles, District returning officer Atul Patne told reporters, said a report from Nagpur.

A total of six incidents of Naxalites opening fire were reported today. In the first incident, a group of Naxals opened fire in Kasansur in Ahri Taluka but the police did not retaliate as part of a strategy.

In the second incident, Naxals fired a few rounds aimed at polling station at Bonde in Korchi Taluka. A chhopper was immediately pressed into service to send additional police force there, Additional S P Gadchiorli, Manoj Sharma, said.

In an another incident, Naxals fired in Kawatha in Kurkheda Taluka but none of the security personnel was hurt in any of the incident.

Over 1.29 lakh state police and central forces were deployed across Maharashtra where voting is being held for 288 assembly seats.

Among the early voters in Maharashtra were Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Vilasrao Deshmukh, industrialist Anil Ambani, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood icons Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and a host of other film personalities.

Brisk polling was recorded in most places across the three states, the enthusiastic voters ranging from the poorest of the poor from urban slums to Bollywood's millionaire actors.

"I voted because it concerns our future, our children's future," Hindi movie star Aamir Khan told journalists after casting his vote early in the day in Mumbai. Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Zayed Khan etc were among other film stars who voted.

Expressing satisfaction over the poll process, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla told reporters that the Commission would keep a close watch on the return of poll personnel posted in Naxal-hit areas in Maharashtra.

Observing that polling parties could not reach to 22 polling stations in some Naxal hit areas in Maharashtra, he said there would be adjourned poll in those areas.

On the gap between the polling and the counting date on October 22, Chawla said political parties in Maharashtra did not want the Diwali festival to be disturbed because of counting.