BMC polls: Poor voter turnout till noon

Polling for 10 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, including Mumbai, to decide the fate of 1,244 candidates, began this morning amidst tight security.

The elections are being held in Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur and Mumbai municipal corporation, where a triangular contest is on cards between the Congress-NCP combine, Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance and the Raj Thackeray-led MNS.

The 10 civic bodies have an electorate of 2.02 crore. In the 227-seat Mumbai corporation, the election is a fiercely fought affair. It is a challenge for the Congress-NCP combine which aims to dethrone the Sena-BJP combine, at the helm of civic affairs for the last 16 years. Polling was held up today in a booth in Nagpur following complaints of EVM malfunction.

In Mumbai, police have beefed up security measures to ensure smooth voting in the city. A total of 2,375 police officers and 20,000 policemen have been deployed at polling booths across the metropolis. Almost 2,000 home guards and personnel of the State Reserve Police Force and Rapid Action Force have been deployed at strategic locations.

But the turnout was a poor 13% till noon.

In Pune, Suresh Kalmadi cast his vote with his wife Meera Kalmadi.

The voting percentage till 11 am in South Mumbai was 4.8%, in Central Mumbai it was 5.2%, in the western suburbs it was 6.2% and in the eastern suburbs it was 7.5%.