In Maharashtra, 98.59 per cent polling was registered during the biennial elections held for seven seats of the Local Bodies’ Constituencies to elect new members of State Legislative Council. With the Bharatiya Janata Party State Unit Spokesman Mr. Girish Vyas already getting elected unopposed to Legislative Council from Nagpur Local Bodies Constituency, the elections were conducted for remaining seven seats of the Self-Government Bodies.
Giving more details, AIR correspondent reports that the members of respective Municipal Corporations, Nagar Parishad and Panchayats, Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis participated in voting in the Local Bodies Constituencies in Maharashtra. In all, 98.59 per cent representatives exercised their franchise on this occasion. While cent per cent polling was registered in Kolhapur constituency, the lowest 87.39 per cent polling was recorded in Mumbai constituency.
With this, the fate of fifteen candidates in fray for the seven seats has been sealed in the ballot boxes and the counting of votes would be taken up on Wednesday at various locations. The term of outgoing Legislative Council members ends on the ensuing Friday i.e.1st of January. They include four Congress members and two each from Shiv Sena and NCP.
For the two seats in Mumbai, there were three candidates in fray including State Environment Minister Mr. Ramdas Kadam of Shivsena and Mr. Bhai Jagtap of Congress along with the NCP rebel candidate Mr. Prasad Lad. In case of the Akola-Washim-Buldhana seat, there was a straight contest between the sitting member Mr. Gopikishan Bajoria of Shiv Sena and Mr. Ravi Sapkal of the Nationalist Congress Party, while it was also a direct fight between the sitting Congress member Mr. Amrish Patel and Mr. Dr. Shashikant Wani of BJP in Dhule-Nandurbar Constituency.
The sitting member Mr. Mahadev Mahadik, who was contesting as an independent candidate supported by the BJP vied with Mr. SatejPatil of the Congress for the Kolhapur seat. In Solapur, Mr. Deepak Salunke of NCP faced Mr. Prashant Paricharak, an independent backed by the BJP and Shivsena. In addition, Mr. Arun Jagtap of NCP and Mr. Shashikant Gade of Shiv Sena were engaged in the electoral battle for the Ahmednagar seat.
