As many as 15 Zila Parishads and 135 panchayat samitis will go to polls in the first phase of local body elections in Maharashtra on Thursday.
A total of 2.04 crore voters, including 96.24 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise in Thursday’s polls.
While there are in all 4,289 candidates in the fray for 855 seats in the 15 Zila Parishads, as many as 7,700 candidates are contesting the polls for 1,712 seats in 135 panchayat samitis.
“We have made elaborate arrangements in 24,031 polling stations for Thursday’s election. Our machinery is fully ready for the polls,” State Election Commissioner JS Saharia said.
The four major political parties that contesting the polls are: the ruling BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP. The ruling BJP and Sena, which severed their electoral ties on January 26, are contesting the polls on their respective strengths. So intense has been rivalry between the BJP and Shiv Sena that the two party leaders have been exchanging barbs at each other. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP has gone to town alleging that its ruling ally in the State, Shiv Sena, has entered into secret arrangement with the Congress at many places and NCP at some places.