Campaigning reaches its peak for Maharashtra Assembly Elections

With just ten days left for the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly Elections, campaigning is at its peak across the state. 

Today, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar is scheduled to hold four rallies in the state including in Shirur, Duand, Khed-Alandi and Talegaon-maval assembly constituencies. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is also on a campaigning spree as he will be holding six rallies today including three in Ahmednagar district, one in Pen-Raigad and other two in Thane and Ulhasnagar. MNS chief Raj Thackeray will be addressing five rallies across Mumbai today with two in Bhandup constituency, remaining three in Ghatkopar, Bhiwandi and Kalyan.

Meanwhile, the BJP yesterday expelled four rebels who are contesting against the official nominees of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the October 21 assembly elections. Those expelled are Charan Waghmare from Tumsar, Geeta Jain from Mira Bhayandar, Balasaheb Ovhal from Pimpri-Chinchwad and Dilip Deshmukh from Ahmedpur-Latur. Santos Janhate, who was Palghar district general secretary, has quit the party as he is contesting as an independent candidate. 

The Maharashtra unit of Congress also suspended former MLA Sevakbhau Waghaye and Ramratan Bapu Raut yesterday for contesting against the party's official nominees. Waghaye is contesting from Sakoli in Bhandara district and Raut is



contesting from Amgaon in Gondia district.

On the other hand, three candidates of Worli Assembly constituency in Mumbai were served notices yesterday under the relevant section of Representation of People's Act for not submitting their daily expenditure details to the returning officer as per the requirements under the law. According to Maharashtra State Election Commission, Returning Officer Sushma Satpute has issued notices to Abhijit Wamanrao Bichkule, Mahesh Popat Khandekar and Vishram Tida Padam. 

In Nanded, notices were issued against 17 persons for using social media like facebook and whats app for campaigning and breaching the model code of conduct this includes one candidate who used paid news as a medium of promotion.

Meanwhile, a flying squad of the Election Commission (EC) yesterday seized Rs 12 lakh worth of cash from a car in suburban Chembur in Mumbai. The cash was seized from the cab, which was associated with a taxi aggregator. The police said the EC squad informed deputy commissioner of income tax Atul Pande about the cash seizure and the I-T department is conducting its own inquiry into the matter. Since the code of conduct came into force on September 21, the I-T department has confiscated Rs 4 crore worth of unaccounted cash from across Mumbai till October 1.