Pune, Oct 13 (IANS) Barely 26 percent of the total electorate of Khadakwasla assembly constituency turned out Thursday to exercise their franchise for the by-poll voting in which ended at 5 p.m., an electoral officer said.
The counting of votes shall be taken up Monday, Oct 17, and the result shall be announced that day itself, the officer added.
Out of the total electorate of 362,000, only 87,404 votes were polled in the daylong election, though it had started on a brisk note in the morning.
Later, it dwindled sharply, mainly on account of the scorching heat, water and power cuts being implemented all over the state.
Amid tight security, the polling was held under the shadow of Anna Hazare’s anti-graft and anti-Congress crusade.
The election was necessitated by the death of the popular Maharashtra Navnirman Sena legislator Ramesh Wanjale.
The vacant seat is being contested by the two main candidates: Harshal, widow of Wanjale, on a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party ticket, and united opposition candidate Bhimrao Tapkir.
The MNS had decided against putting up any candidate as a tribute to Wanjale’s memory, but there were six other candidates in the fray.
Both the sides spared no efforts to get their candidate elected with top leaders aggressively campaigning for the elections.
The polling was conducted in 376 stations across the constituency, comprising 30 percent rural and 70 percent urban population.
Around 70 polling stations were identified as ‘sensitive’ and additional security forces were deployed as a precaution.
While the Congress-NCP hopes that its candidate Harshal Wanjale will benefit from her husband’s sympathy wave, the opposition is hoping Hazare’s anti-graft crusade will have a bearing on the outcome.
