Mumbai, April 26 (IANS): A voter turnout of 53.51 per cent was recorded till 5 p.m. for the 8 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra where voting was held on Friday.

Wardha registered the highest polling percentage till 5 p.m. at 56.66 per cent, followed by Amravati (54.50), Yavatmal-Washim (54.04), Parbhani (53.79), Akola (52.49), Nanded (52.47), Buldhana (52.24), and Hingoli (52.03).

The voters at the Hivari polling station in the Yavatmal-Washim constituency were made to wait for around 25 minutes as the polling staff took a 'break' for lunch. For a while, the voters, including senior citizens, got confused as they were made to wait as if they had gone to some government office. The polling was stopped from 2.10 p.m. to 2.35 p.m. due to this reason.

In Akola, a salon operator named Anant Kanulkar gave a novel offer of free haircuts to the customers who cast their votes.

‘’Show your inked finger and get a haircut for free,’’ read a board outside his salon.

Stating that the offer was part of his efforts to encourage people to vote, Kanulkar appealed, "Wake up voters, become a part of democracy."

In Washim, District Collector Bhuvaneshwari S. cast her vote at the Lions Vidya Niketan and thereafter planted a sapling on the school campus.

She also said the district administration had made efforts to increase the polling percentage to 75 per cent.

As part of the voter awareness drive, the Washim district administration also resorted to a novel idea of applying free 'mehendi' to the female voters who cast their votes on Friday.