Mumbai, Nov 20 (IANS): Voting is a precious privilege that all must exercise, said Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran on Wednesday, even as he cast his vote in the Maharashtra election.

“The opportunity to exercise voting is a precious privilege that you can get,” Chandrasekaran told IANS.

“I would encourage everyone to turn out and exercise this right,” he added.

Voting, which started at 7 a.m. is underway in the 288 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra and will end at 6 p.m. The voter turnout till 9 a.m. was reported at 6.61 per cent, according to officials.

Of the 1,00,186 polling stations, 42,604 are urban and 57,582 are rural.

The MahaYuti comprising BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP is pitted against the Maha Vikas Aghadi consisting of Congress, Shiv Sena UBT, and NC(SP) in a prestige battle.

About 9.70 crore comprising 5.22 crore male and 4.69 crore female voters will exercise their right to vote. Pune district is leading in the highest number of voters.

There are 4,136 candidates comprising 3,771 men, 363 women, and two others in the fray.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat were among the early voters in the state's assembly elections.

Pawar, accompanied by his wife, voted in Baramati, expressing confidence in his victory. Bhagwat cast his vote in Nagpur, urging citizens to vote responsibly.

Other early voters included BJP's Ashish Shelar, former UP Governor Ram Naik, Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan, and Congress.

"Taking into consideration the apathy of the voters in the urban areas especially from Mumbai, Thane, and Pune, the state election machinery conducted various campaigns to increase the voting percentage,” said additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr Kiran Kulkarni.

“A total of 1,181 polling stations have been set up in high-rise buildings/cooperative housing society complexes in the cities. Also, 210 polling stations have been set up in slum areas. The total number of sub-polling stations is 241," he added.