In Maharashtra, twenty seven Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samitis under their jurisdiction are going to polls today. They include Nagpur, Amravati, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Wardha Chandrapur and Gadchiroli Zilla Parishad in Vidarbha region along with eighty three Panchayat Samitis associated with them. In case of the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district, the polling for seats relating to four talukas would be conducted in the second phase scheduled to be conducted on February 12. Around five and half thousand candidates are in fray in the region for these elections. In Nagpur, 316 candidates are in fray for 59 Zilla Parishad seats with as many as 608 candidates vying for 118 Panchayat Samiti seats. With all the major political parties including Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Shivsena deciding to contest these elections separately and large number of candidates owing to dissidents and independents, the electoral contests are mostly multi-cornered.There are 2252 polling centres for about 14, 32, 032 voters to exercise their franchise.