94 nominations received for Baramati LS constituency
DEO has received 94 nominations for Baramati, five for Pune, three for Shirur and one for Maval LS seats
PUNE Till April 19, the District Election Office (DEO) has received 94 nominations for the Baramati Lok Sabha (LS) seat; five for Pune; three for Shirur; and one for the Maval seat. As per the Election Commission schedule, polling will take place in Baramati on May 7; whereas in Pune city, Maval and Shirur that are in Pune district, it will take place during the fourth phase on May 13.
Baramati is among 48 LS constituencies in Maharashtra and has been a bastion of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar. It is the first parliamentary constituency to go to polls, and is witnessing a family rivalry between Sharad Pawar and his estranged nephew, Ajit Pawar, who switched sides to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti and has fielded his wife, Sunetra Pawar, against his cousin sister and sitting member of parliament (MP), Supriya Sule. At 8,282,363 voters, Pune district has the highest number of voters spread across four LS constituencies namely Pune, Shirur, Baramati and Maval. Among the four parliamentary constituencies of Pune district, Shirur tops the list with 2,527,241 voters; followed by Baramati with 2,326,487 voters; Pune with 2,047,389 voters; and Maval with 1,355,914 voters. The counting of votes and declaration of results for all the seats in Maharashtra will be completed by June 4.
In the 2019 LS elections, the NCP had won two seats in Shirur and Baramati whereas the BJP and Shiv Sena had won from the Pune and Maval constituencies, respectively. All four seats in Pune have been designated as unreserved categories. A majority of the voters (2,057,606) falls within the 30 to 39 years’ age group; followed by 1,883,807 voters in the 40 to 49 years’ age group. Additionally, there are 95,275 first-time voters in the 18 to 19 years’ age group. Voting in Pune, Shirur, and Maval is scheduled for May 13, while Baramati will go to polls on May 7. The DEO has allocated 11,898 electronic voting machines (EVMs) along with 12,749 VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines for the elections, apart from deploying armed police guards at 10 sensitive polling stations in the city. Over 10,500 police personnel will be deployed for security duties for the LS elections in the district to be held in two phases.
