The voting for two seats in Maharashtra, Kasba Peth and Pimpri-Chinchwad, began on Sunday, in a battle which is closely watched amid the political turmoils in the state.
The battle in both constituencies is between Shinde's Shiv Sena-BJP and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The MVA is a coalition of Congress, NCP and Uddhav Thackarey's Shiv Sena faction.
Despite the Shinde camp and Thackarey's camp not fielding their candidates, the battle is being closely watched as it is the first since the Election Commission's controversial decision on symbol row.
In Kasba Peth, the main battle is between BJP's Hemant Rasane and Congress's Ravindra Dhangekar. Three candidates are in the fray in Chinchwad, Vitthal Kate (NCP), Ashwini Jagtap (BJP) and independent Rahul Kalate.
Both seats are currently being held by the BJP and the bypolls were necessitated due to the death of MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, in Kasba and Chinchwad, respectively/
Both constituencies saw intense campaigning by both party leaders. Reeling from the symbol row setback, the Uddhav faction is hoping to turn the tides in their favour. Last week, Uddhav directed his party workers to support the candidates of their MVA allies. Uddhav's son Aaditya Thackeray held a roadshow in Pune.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis too campaigned for their candidates in both districts by holding road shows. Union Home Minister Amit Shah too held closed-door meetings to discuss its preparations and deployed over six BJP ministers from the state and the Centre to campaign for the ruling party.
Meanwhile, Kasba Peth Congress candidate Dhangekar on Saturday went on a hunger strike after alleging the BJP distributed money to voters. He ended the strike only after police assured him they would investigate the matter.
Voting begins
Voting began at 7 am on both constituencies in Pune. In Chinchwad, the district election authorities welcomed early voters by laying 'rangoli' (colourful patterns) and offering roses. In the Kasba constituency also voters were seen exercising their franchise in the morning.
District election authorities said adequate security arrangements were made in both constituencies. "Necessary arrangments have been made at all the polling stations and I appeal to all the voters to come out and exercise their franchise without any fear," Sachin Dhole, election officer for Chinchwad constituency, was quoted by PTI.
