Pune overtakes Mumbai Suburban district, sees sharp rise in voter registration

Mumbai: Pune district has overtaken Mumbai Suburban district in terms of voter registration for the October 21 Assembly elections. What is astonishing fact is that between September 21 when the dates for the Assembly elections were announced and till October 4, the Election Commission of India (ECI) cleared and added names of about 4 lakh voters to the voters list in a span of about a fortnight.

Sources in the ECI disclosed that the voter registration forms were accepted till September 17, last month. Polling in all the 288 assembly constituencies will be held on October 21, counting of votes and results will be declared on October 24.

The data reveals that besides Mumbai Suburban district, the voter population has risen in district’s like Pune, Thane, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Mumbai City and Raigad district.

At the time when the Assembly elections were announced on September 21, the total voter population stood at 8.95 crores. The total voter population of Maharashtra as on October 4 now stands at 8.99 crores, a rise of 4 lakh voters.

Out of the total voter population of 8,99,36,261 Cr (8.99 Cr), 4.68 crore are male voters, 4.28 crore are female voters and 2,634 are Transgender voters. Besides this out of the 1,17,581 lakh service voters, 1.14 lakh are male and 3,085 are female voters. Besides this out of the total 96,661 polling stations, 95,473 are main polling stations and 1,188 are Auxiliary polling stations in Maharashtra.

However, sources in the ECI revealed that the process of accepting forms, documents and verification of the forms had been going on for a month. An official source in the ECI further disclosed that in many cases the voters who had submitted the forms, without the necessary documents were asked to complete the formalities. He added that the process of enrolling the names of those voters who had submitted their forms before September 17 will be added to the voters list soon.

The highest registration of 77.42 lakhs voters has been recorded in Pune district, followed by 72.71 lakhs in Mumbai Suburban district, 64 lakhs in Thane, 45.58 lakhs in Nashik, 41.78 lakh in Nagpur, 34.87 lakh in Ahmednagar, 34.64 lakhs in Jalgaon, 34.42 lakhs in Solapur, 31.05 lakhs in Kolhapur and 28.59 lakhs in Aurangabad, amongst the 36 district’s in Maharashtra.

In Pune district, the 77.42 lakh voters include, 40.42 lakh male, 36.86 female, 243 transgender voters who will cast their votes in 7,915 polling stations. In Mumbai Suburban district, the 72.71 lakh voters include, 39.47 lakh male, 33.15 lakh female and 528 transgender voters who will cast their ballot at 7,397 polling booths. The 64 lakh voters in Thane district include, 34.79 lakh male, 29.12 lakh female and 467 transgender voters who will cast their votes in 6,621 polling booths.

In terms of the lowest registration of voters compared to other district’s, names of 6.72 lakh voters were enrolled in Sindhudurg district, 9.11 lakhs in Hingoli, 9.60 lakhs in Washim and 9.94 lakh voters in Bhandara district.

Out of the 2,634 transgenders registering as voters, a maximum of 528 have registered their names in Mumbai Suburban district, 467 in Thane, 243 in Pune, 157 in Ahmednagar, 146 in Satara, 132 in Mumbai City and 117 in Palghar district.