Mumbai, May 23 (IANS): Counting of millions of votes started at various places in Mumbai and Maharashtra amid tight security for 48 Lok Sabha seats on Thursday morning, officials said.
In Mumbai, the counting of postal and defence ballots was taken up first followed by the count of the votes cast in EVMs.
The early voting trends are expected within a couple of hours.
In Mumbai, the prominent candidates in the fray are: BJP's Gopal Shetty, Poonam Mahajan, Manoj Kotak; Shiv Sena's Gajanan Kirtikar, Rahul Shewale, Arvind Sawant; Congress' Milind M. Deora, Sanjay Nirupam, Eknath Gaekwad, Priya Dutt, Urmila Matondkar; and Nationalist Congress Party's Sanjay Dina Patil.