Assembly bypolls: 3.5 pc voter turnout in Chinchwad, 6.5 pc in Kasba till 9 am

A voter turnout of 352 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Sunday in Chinchwad Assembly seat and 65 per cent in Kasba Assembly seat in Maharashtra as voting was underway for byelections in the two constituencies of Pune district election officials saidThere was a clash between supporters of Shiv Sena UBT rebel candidate Rahul Kalate and the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP outside a polling station in Chinchwad and police intervened to bring the situation under control a senior police official saidIt was a minor clash between the supporters of Kalate and BJP but police intervened on time Pimpri Chinchwads Deputy Commissioner of Police Kakasaheb Dole saidAlso Read Maharashtra govt to develop Veer Savarkar Garden theme park museum in NashikThe byelections are significant given the changed political landscape in the state after the Election Commission recently allotted the Shiv Sena name and bow and arrow symbol to the faction headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath ShindeA rebellion led by Shinde in June last year split the Sena and brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA also comprising the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party governmentShinde became CM on June 30 2022 with the BJPs supportThe bypolls in Kasba and Chinchwad were necessitated due to the death of their sitting BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman JagtapVoting for the bypolls in the two seats began at 7 am on SundayRavindra Dhangekar the CongressMVA candidate from Kasba constituency was among the early voters and expressed confidence of winning the bypollI will win the election by more than 25000 votes as people of the constituency are behind me Dhangekar said after casting his voteBJP candidate from Kasba Hemant Rasane went to Punes famous Shrimant Dagadusheth Ganapati temple and took blessings of God before casting his voteRasane said he would get the blessing of voters in the bypollIn Chinchwad NCP candidate Nana Kate and BJP nominee Ashwini Jagtap cast their votesSpeaking to reporters Ashwini Jagtap said the way voters from Chinchwad had trust and confidence in her late husband and MLA Laxman Jagtap she also has similar trust and confidence in the voters from the constituencyKate after exercising his franchise said a great excitement was seen among the votersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever