Maharashtra polling on, RSS top brass vote

Nagpur: Voting was on in seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra on Thursday, officials said.

Of the total 1.30 crore electorate, the early voters included RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at a school in Nagpur.

Urging people to vote for national security and the country's unity, Bhagwat said: "Voting is our duty."

Eminent social worker Vikas Amte and his family voted in Anandvan (Wardha) while former union Minister Praful Patel and his family voted in Bhandara-Gondiya,

To beat the heat, many voters had queued up early at polling stations in Nagpur, Chandrapur, Ramtek, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim, Gadchiroli-Chimur and Bhandara-Gondiya.

to vote at most of the 14,731 polling stations.

At polling stations in Aheri in the Maoist-infested Gadchiroli-Chimur, long queues of voters including many women and youth were seen even before the polling started.

The fate of 116 candidates including prominent one like union ministers Nitin Gadkari versus Nana Patole of Congress (Nagpur) and Hansraj Ahir versus Suresh Dhanorkar of Congress (Chandrapur) besides former state Congress President Manikrao Thakre (Yavatmal-Washim) and state Women's Congress President Charulata Tokas will be decided on Thursday.