Mumbai, April 16 (PTI): Nineteen constituencies across Maharashtra with an estimated 3.25 crore electorate will go to polls on Thursday to decide the fate of 358 candidates, including Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde.

About 3,24,27,558 electorate in constituencies of western Maharashtra, Marathwada, Konkan are eligible to cast their votes during the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state on Thursday.

Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place to ensure free and fair polling. Ten constituencies of Vidarbha went to polls in the first phase on April 10 and more than 60 per cent electorate have cast their votes. In the second phase, there are 358 candidates in the fray, including 24 women and 201 independents.

Voters in the second phase include 1,69,54,391 men and 1,53,77,605 women. There are 306 voters in the others category and 95,256 in the service category. The constituencies which will go to polls are Hingoli, Nanded, Beed, Parbhani, Osmanabad and Latur in Marathwada; Pune, Baramati, Shirur, Maval, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Hathkanangale in Western Maharashtra; Shirdi, Ahmednagar in North Maharashtra and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg in Konkan.

The generation next of Maharashtra politics- SupriyaSule (Baramati) and Nilesh Rane (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg)- are seeking their second term. Indian Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav, who is currently a legislator, is making a debut in electoral politics from Hingoli.

Vishwajit Kadam, who is the state Youth Congress chief and son of Congress veteran Patangrao Kadam, is also making a foray from Pune. Beed constituency has the maximum number of 39 candidates, while Baramati has the lowest with nine. Electorate-wise, the largest constituency is Maval with 19,46,127 voters, while the smallest one is Ratnagiri- Sindhudurg (13,63,957).

While Shinde is contesting from Solapur, Chavan, who had to quit three years ago over the alleged involvement in the Adarsh Housing scam, is the Congress candidate from his home turf of Nanded. BJP’s Munde is seeking a second term as MP from Beed. Union Minister of State Pratik Patil (Congress) is seeking a second term from Sangli.

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had campaigned for their respective party candidates. Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency has seen NCP defying Sharad Pawar’s diktat to the local party unit to campaign for Congress candidate Nilesh Rane. While in Pune, much depends on whether sitting MP SUresh Kalmadi remains true to his word not to harm the electoral prospects of party candidate Vishwajit Kadam.

BSP has fielded candidates in all the 19 constituencies, followed by NCP which is contesting 10, Congress 9, Shiv Sena 8, BJP 7, MNS 2, CPI and CPM one each. There are 36,879 polling stations, where 44,254 EVMs will be used for voting. Nearly 2,76,592 In the second phase, there are 358 candidates in the fray, including 24 women and 201 independents.