Pune: Counting of votes for the byelections to Kasba and Chinchwad Assembly constituencies in Pune district began at 8 am today (March 2) morning. The bypolls for the two seats held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took place on February 26. The elections pitted the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena against the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
The elections were necessitated by the deaths of incumbent BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak (Kasba Peth) and Laxman Jagtap (Chinchwad). The average voter turnout in both constituencies was 50 percent. The main contenders in the Kasba Peth constiutency, located in the old area of Pune city, are Hemant Rasane of the BJP and Ravindra Dhangekar of the Congress (backed by the MVA).
In Chinchwad, an industrial town near Pune, the fight is between Ashwini Jagtap of the BJP, Nana Kate of the NCP and independent Rahul Kalate.
Counting will begin at 8 am, a district official said. The Food Corporation of India warehouse in Koregaon Park will host the Kasba Peth vote counting, while that for Chinchwad assembly seat will be held at Shankarao Gawade Kamgar Bhavan in Thergaon, he added. There would be 20 counting rounds for the Kasba Peth seat and 37 rounds for the Chinchwad seat. Heavy police security has been deployed at the counting centres.
Apart from the two constituencies in Maharashtra, results will also be declared in the bypolls for Erode (East) seat in Tamil Nadu, Sagardighi in West Bengal Ramgarh in Jharkhand where polling was held on February 27. Besides, the day also witnesses results for Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland Assembly polls.
