Maha polls: Mumbai Suburban district has highest 315 candidates, Sindhudurg 17

Mumbai, Nov 13 (IANS) The mood seems to be – the more the merrier – in the upcoming Nov. 20 elections for the Maharashtra Assembly, in which a whopping 4,136 candidates are contesting for the 288 constituencies spread across 36 districts, officials said here on Wednesday.

From the total of 4,136 – comprising various political parties and independents - there are 2 Transgenders, 363 women nominees and an overpowering horde of 3771 male candidates jostling in the poll arena to try their luck.

The two transgenders are contesting from constituencies in Nanded and Jalgaon where they are grappling with another 164 and 138 contenders, respectively.

Among the womenfolk, there are only two females in the fray each in Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Hingoli, and Gondia districts, but the maximum 39 are in the field in Mumbai Suburban District.

The small but heavily populated Mumbai Suburban District has the highest number of total candidates – 315 contenders in the fray for roughly 20 seats while the picturesque Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan has a mere 17 in the poll battle.

The other districts with a huge number of contestants are Pune (303), Thane (244), Nagpur (217), Nashik (196), Solapur (184), Aurangabad (183), Nanded (165), Amravati (160), Ahmednagar (151), Beed and Jalgaon (139 each), Kolhapur (121), Buldhana (115), Jalna and Satara (109 each), Latur (106), Mumbai City (105), and Yavatmal (102).

The districts with double-digit candidates include Sangli (99), Chandrapur (94), Raigad (73), Akola (70), Osmanabad (66), Gondia (64), Washim (62), Wardha (60), Parbhani (58), Dhule (56), Hingoli and Palghar (53 each), Bhandara (50), Ratnagiri (38), Nandurbar (31), Gadchiroli (29) and Sindhudurg (17).

Among the male contestants, Pune is the highest with 282 candidates in the fray, next is Mumbai Suburban District (276), Thane (211), Nagpur (201), Solapur (179), Nashik (176), Aurangabad (165), Nanded (150), Ahmednagar (142), Amravati (140), Beed (127), Jalgaon (121), Kolhapur (110), Latur and Buldhana (103 each), Satara (102), Jalna (101), and the remaining districts have contenders in the double-digit.

From the women in the fray, the highest are: Mumbai Suburban District (39), Thane (33), Pune (21), Nashik and Amravati (20 each), Aurangabad (18), Jalgaon (17), Nagpur (16), Nanded (14), Buldhana and Beed (12 each), Kolhapur (11), Mumbai City and Raigad (10 each), as per the official data.

The full-throated election campaign - at times weird, colourful and wacky - is going on in full swing with the multiple parties viciously lunging at each other’s throats, with just a week left for the much-anticipated V-Day on Nov. 20.

The Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) is busy finalising all the preparations to ensure a smooth conduct of the voting for the single-phased elections this time with tight security and all other precautions.

As per the CEO’s Oct. 30 figures, Maharashtra has a total of 9,70,25,119 voters, comprising 5,00, 22,739 men and 4,49,96,279 women.

They include 22,22,704 young or first-time voters aged 18-19 years, 6,101 transgender votes, 6.41 with disabilities and 1.16 lakhs service electors, according to the CEO S. Chockalingam.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: qnajmi@gmail.com)

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