700 elderly persons opt for home voting in Nanded constituency

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Apr 17 (PTI) Nearly 700 persons above 85 years of age have opted for home voting in Maharashtra’s Nanded Lok Sabha constituency, which will go to polls in the second phase on April 26, an official said on Wednesday.

The Election Commission has allowed electors above 85 years of age and persons with at least 40 per cent disability to choose the home voting facility.

According to an official release, 699 such elderly voters in the constituency have opted to cast their ballot from home.

The Nanded Lok Sabha seat has 18,51,843 eligible voters. Of them, 9,55,084 voters are male, 8,96,617 are women, while 142 are transgender persons. There are also 15,667 voters with disabilities, an official said.

Nanded seat consists of Mukhed, Deglur, Naigaon, Bhokar, Nanded North and Nanded South segments.

There are 2,062 polling booths in Nanded of which 16 will be managed entirely by women, he said.

A total of twenty-three candidates are in the fray in Nanded this time. Here, sitting MP Pratap Patil Chikhalikar, backed by BJP and its allies, is pitted against Vasant Chavan supported by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi. Avinash Bhosikar of Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi is also in the ring.

Earlier, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan joined the BJP and was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha. PTI AW NR