The Election Commission of India (ECI) Wednesday revised the date of the bypolls of Chinchwad and Kasba Peth assembly constituency in Maharashtra’s Pune to February 26, a day before the earlier declared date.
The dates were revised after the district election officer informed the authorities about the clash of dates of the bypoll with that of Class 12 and graduate degree examinations.
The ECI on January 18 had announced bye-election to the assembly constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and the parliamentary constituency of UT of Lakshadweep wherein, the date was fixed on February 27. The counting of votes will be held on March 2.
The ECI through its revised notification said that the District Election Officer of Pune has reported about the clash of the date of election with the dates of Class 12 HSC examination and graduate degree examination. The Election Commission also took note of the fact that various examination centres were also the polling stations of the assembly constituencies.
“The Commission has considered the matter, ground situation and all other relevant aspects of the matter, and has decided to revise the date of poll for bye-elections to assembly constituencies Chinchwad and Kasba Peth,” it said.
As per the schedule for the bypoll, the last day of nomination is on February 7 and withdrawal is on February 10.
The bypolls for Kasba Peth and Chinhcwad were declared after the seats fell vacant following the death of two BJP legislators – Mukta Tilak on December 22 and Laxman Jagtap on January 3.
Tilak, who was a member of the family of freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak, died due to illness. The former mayor of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) was elected to the state legislative assembly for the first time in 2019. Tilak represented the Kasba Peth constituency.
Her demise has led to the speculations on who would be the BJP candidate for the seat which is a party bastion. Many local leaders, including Hemant Rasane, Ganesh Bidkar, Dheeraj Ghate are considered for Kasba, but the name of Shailesh Tilak, husband of Mukta Tilak, and former Kothrud legislator Medha Kulkarni is also doing the rounds.
Jagtap, who represented Chinchwad, died early this month. He was a close confidant of NCP leader Ajit Pawar before switching over to the BJP. The BJP is also looking for a candidate from his family to contest the bypoll.
