Maharashtra assembly elections 2024: Counting of votes begin

Counting of votes in the Maharashtra assembly elections 2024 began Saturday morning with all eyes on the outcome of the battle between the ruling BJPled Mahayuti coalition and the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA alliance which is seeking to make a comebackThe counting of votes commenced at 8 am in all the counting centres in the state an election official saidAt the counting centres officials first began verifying and counting the postal ballots with the counting of EVM votes scheduled to start at 830 am There will be a minimum of 20 rounds of counting in each assembly segment an official saidThe final turnout in the Maharashtra assembly elections 2024 held on November 20 was 6605 per cent up from 611 per cent in 2019Counting of votes also began at 8 am for the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll where 6781 per cent voting was recorded on November 20Also Read Maharashtra Election 2024 results Live UpdatesKolhapur district led with 7663 per cent polling followed by 7526 per cent in Gadchiroli which has some Left Wing Extremism affected pockets while the lowest was in Mumbai island city at 5207 per cent Mumbai suburban district recorded 5595 per cent pollingA total of 288 counting centres have been set up for the counting of votesA total of 288 counting observers are overseeing each assembly constituency with two observers assigned to monitor counting in the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll an official saidThe high volume of postal ballots has led to the establishment of 1732 tables for postal ballot counting and 592 tables for Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System ETPBS to ensure a smooth counting process across all assembly constituencies the official saidIn the Mahayuti alliance the BJP contested 149 assembly seats Shiv Sena 81 seats and the Ajit Pawarled NCP fielded candidates in 59 constituenciesIn the MVA combine the Congress fielded 101 candidates Shiv Sena UBT 95 and NCP SP put up 86 candidatesParties like Bahujan Samaj Party and the All India MajliseIttehadulMuslimeen AIMIM also contested with BSP fielding 237 candidates and AIMIM putting up 17 candidatesThe number of candidates this time increased by 28 per cent compared to the 2019 state assembly elections This year 4136 candidates contested up from 3239 in 2019 electionsAmong these candidates 2086 were independents Rebels were in the fray in over 150 constituencies with candidates from the Mahayuti and MVA contesting against their partys official nomineesThere were 100186 polling booths in Maharashtra this time compared to 96654 booths in the 2019 assembly electionsMumbai police have issued an order prohibiting any assembly of people in 300metre radius of all the 36 counting centres in the city which comprises 36 assembly constituenciesNo person other than an official engaged with the election process or public servant engaged in duty shall loiter or form any assembly within 300 metres radius from any counting centre a police official saidThe order is effective till midnight on November 24The majority mark in the 288seat Maharashtra Assembly is 145 the number any alliance or party needs to crack to be able to form government in the stateThe term of the present state assembly ends on November 26With inputs from PTI