Bollywood star Kartik Aaryan was seen at a polling station on Wednesday morning as the Maharashtra Assembly elections got underway.

The actor chose a white shirt and blue pants to keep his appearance modest. When Kartik cast his ballot, he showed his tattooed finger to the media.

‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ star urged people to use their right to vote in a media appearance.
The statement he made was, “Hum sab ka farz banta hain vote karna toh ap sab jaeye aur vote kare” (Everyone should go and cast their vote since it is our job).

At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Maharashtra’s single-phase assembly elections, which started earlier this morning, had a 6.61 percent voter participation.

The district of Osmanabad had the lowest voter participation, at 4.85% till 9 am, while the naxal-affected area of Gadchiroli had the highest, at 12.33%, according to Maharashtra polling board statistics.

6.25 percent of voters cast ballots in Mumbai city. Ratnagiri 9.30 percent, Latur 5.91 percent, Nagpur 6.86 percent, Thane 6.66 percent, Aurangabad 7.05 percent, Pune 5.53 percent, Nashik 6.89 percent, Jalgaon 5.85 percent, Satara 5.14 percent, Kolhapur 7.38 percent, Dhule 6.79 percent, Palghar 7.30 percent, Nanded 5.42 percent, and Latur 5.91 percent.

There are 4,136 candidates running in the elections, 2,086 of them are independents. The Shiv Sena is running for 81 seats, the NCP for 59, and the BJP for 149. There are 86 candidates from the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), 95 from the Shiv Sena (UBT), and 101 from the Congress.

Other minor parties are also running, and the BSP is running for 237 seats. About 9.7 crore people are registered to vote in the state. For its 288 assembly seats, Maharashtra had a loud campaign before the elections.

The Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition are the main contenders.

The opposition MVA is made up of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and the NCP (Sharad Pawar group), whereas the governing BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is made up of the BJP, Shiv Sena, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction).

In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, the Congress won 44 seats, the Shiv Sena 56, and the BJP 105. The Shiv Sena won 63 seats, the Congress 42, and the BJP 122 in 2014.