After a lackadaisical start, brisk voting has been reported in both the Congress-ruled states of Maharashtra and Haryana. At 3 pm, Maharashtra polled 45.6 per cent, while Haryana polled a robust 52.4 per cent. Maharashtra had polled 56 per cent in the Lok Sabha elections.

Remember, a high voter turnout is seen as a sign that people are voting for change.  About 8.35 crore voters in the state will be sealing the fate of 4,119 candidates including prominent ones like former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, former deputy CM Ajit Pawar former ministers R R Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal of NCP, Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Khadse, Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde of BJP, Subhash Desai, Suresh Jain and Deepak Kesarkar of Shiv Sena.

Pic: The BJP's ad blitzkrieg across newspapers in Mumbai over the last two weeks.