BJP hopes to sail through MLC polls on Gopinath Munde sympathy wave

Gopinath Munde

The Bharatiya Janata Party is expecting that the Modi factor, coupled with a sympathy wave due to Union minister Gopinath Munde's untimely death, would help its prospects in the graduates and teachers constituencies for the MLC polls today. The party has fielded three candidates, from Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur divisions, for the graduates constituencies election.

BJP is expecting that a sympathy wave due to Gopinath Munde's death, would help its prospects in the MLC polls today. File Pic

"In the previous election, we lost Aurangabad division by a margin of a few votes. However, this year the picture would be completely different. Not only the Modi wave, but the sympathy wave after Munde's death will bring victory to the party in Aurangabad," said Shripad Dhekane, BJP's western Maharashtra spokesperson.

Aurangabad falls under the state's Marathwada region, to which Munde belonged. "We are sure that all our four candidates will be victorious; they did tremendous work for the youth and teachers in their respective divisions," said Dhekane. Sitting MLC Bhagwan Salunkhe from Pune division's teachers constituency is associated with the BJP.

From Pune division, sitting MLC Chandrakant Patil is in the fray, while former Nagpur mayor Anil Sole and Sharad Boralkar are contesting from Nagpur and Aurangabad divisions, respectively.

Meanwhile, District Collector Saurabh Rao said that as many as 128 micro observers are deployed in Pune district, and 128 cameras have been installed in its 345 polling centers.

"As many as 17 contestants are in the reckoning for the graduates constituency election from Pune division, while 29 will contest from teachers constituency. Voting will be held between 8 am and 4 pm, and all government and semi-government offices will give their employees time off for four hours so they may vote," said Rao. The votes will be counted on June 24.