Solapur, Sept 26: Polling for by-election to Solapur parliamentary constituency, apparently the first trial of strength of the DF government after Sushilkumar Shinde assumed the reins of Maharashtra, is currently underway. "Balloting commenced peacefully at eight in the morning," Election Commission sources said, adding elaborate security arrangements have been made to avoid any untoward incident.
Nearly 11,22,042 voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the election. Though there are 10 candidates in the fray, a keen tussle is on the cards between Congress' Anand Deokate and BJP's Pratapsinh Mohite-Patil.
Altogether 1,750 electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been set up at 1,326 booths and 6,500 personnel, including 180 zonal officers, have been deployed, the sources said.
There are six assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency, the largest being north Solapur with 3,28,589 voters, they said. The smallest assembly segment is Solapur (city) with 96,002 voters, they added.
Of the six assembly constituencies, three are held by Congress, two by Shiv Sena and one by NCP.
Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde represents south Solapur (rural) which was earlier held by Anand Deokate.
The by-poll was necessitated after Shinde vacated the constituency, which he represented for consecutive three terms, to head the state government. Dissent in Congress rank and file came to the fore with local party men opposing Deokate's candidature. Deokate's woes did not end there with party ally NCP taking little interest in his campaigning.
NCP state leadership even had to serve show cause notices to its workers in the textile township after they were found campaigning for Mohite-Patil, who incidentally is brother of Maharashtra PWD Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, a sugar baron and an NCP strongman.
BJP, which had wrested this Congress stronghold in 1996 polls, left no stone unturned and roped in party president Venkaiah Naidu and other leaders, including Pramod Mahajan, Gopinath Munde and Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray for canvassing.
Shinde has camped in the city for last six days to ensure Deokate's victory. Congress leaders on campaign trail included senior party leaders Shivraj Patil, Vayalar Ravi and former Chief Ministers A R Antulay and Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Prevailing scarcity situation in Solapur, unrest among trading community over unilateral decision of congress-led civic body to privatise octroi, recent communal clashes in the city and recovery of crude bombs were the issues highlighted during the campaign.
The Congress highlighted, what it described as, "failure" of the NDA government at the Centre on all fronts. Bureau Report