In Maharashtra, moderate polling is in progress for Elections to twenty seven Zilla Parishads and various Panchayat Samitis under their jurisdiction. 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 Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district, in four talukas including Aheri, Etapalli, Bhamragad and Sironcha polling would be conducted in the second phase scheduled to be conducted on February 12.Over seven thousand candidates are contesting for 1,624 Zilla Parishad seats. 13,473 candidates are in fray for 3,218 Panchayat Samiti seats in the state. Our Nagpur correspondent reports that around twelve per cent voters have exercised their franchise during the first two hours and the polling process is likely to pick up speed later in the afternoon. No untoward incident has been reported so far as the police and other security agencies are keeping a strict vigil.With all the major political parties including Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv sena deciding to contest these elections separately and large number of candidates owing to presence of dissidents and independents, the electoral contests are mostly multi-cornered.