Voter apathy was evident across the state with an overall 40.77 per cent polling being recorded till 3.30 pm. Though the figures improved through the day they were still nowhere close to what the experts and politicians were expecting this year.

Earlier, voting in all 10 municipal corporations across Maharashtra started off peacefully, with no untoward incident being reported from anywhere in Mumbai or nine other municipal bodies where polling wasu00a0underway.

A total of 3.5 crore people will elect 1,244 municipal councillors, including 624 women, in Mumbai, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur municipal corporations.

In Nagpur, polling started on a tardy pace but picked up through the day. An average 42.14 per cent polling was recorded till 3.30 pm. BJP national president Nitin Gadkari accompanied by his wife Kanchan and other family members turned up at a booth in Mahal and exercised their franchise.

In Nashik, voting began this morning for 122 seats in the Municipal Corporation, where 929 candidates are in the fray. The first two hours saw 8-10 per cent polling on a peaceful note at 1253 voting centres. By 3.30 pm it had moved up to 42.20 per cent. The total number of electorate is 1,03,500.