Maha: Candidate, poll worker and voter die as skirmishes, stray violence mar peaceful voting

Mumbai, Nov 20 : The largely peaceful Maharashtra Assembly elections were marred by stray incidents of violence, clashes among rival party workers, the death of a poll-duty worker, plus an Independent candidate and a senior citizen dying of heart attack, as per reports from different parts of the state, here on Wednesday.

In Beed, an Independent candidate Balasaheb Shinde, 45, suffered a massive heart attack at a polling station where he had gone to cast his vote.

Trailed by a large number of his supporters, Shinde had gone to vote at a polling centre in Chhatrapati Shahu School in the city when he felt giddy and collapsed. His shocked activists rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead on admission.

In another incident from Satara, a 67-year-old man Shyam Dhaigude died of a cardiac arrest at a polling booth in Morve village, casting a pall of gloom in the vicinity.

A tragic incident came from Palghar, a 39-year-old Suman S. Yadav, serving as an ASHA worker in the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation, was killed in a train accident when she was proceeding on polling duties.

Posted at the ZP School in Nagle village, around 6.15 a.m., she was crossing the railway tracks to reach her workplace when she was run over by a train, killing her instantly.

Ashti constituency in Beed witnessed a heated argument between the supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Suresh Dhus and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) candidate Mahebub Shaikh and soon it turned into a free-for-all at the Bedarwadi village.

As both sides claimed that the rival group had assaulted them, the police and local leaders intervened to defuse the crisis and later the tempers cooled down.

BJP’s Dhus is engaged in a ‘friendly contest’ with the ruling MahaYuti ally Balasaheb Ajbe of the Nationalist Congress Party, making it a four-cornered fight in Ashti with Shaikh and a formidable Independent Jyoti Mete, wife of ex-minister Vinayak Mete.

At Ghatnandur village in Parli (Beed), a huge ruckus erupted among workers of rival parties that saw the voting process halted for some time, and it resumed after the intervention of election authorities and police.

Tension prevailed for some time in the sensitive Kolhapur North constituency following clashes between workers of the ruling Shiv Sena and the Shiv Sena (UBT), and the temperatures receded only after the intervention of senior Congress MLC Satej D. Bunty Patil.

Nashik’s Nandgaon constituency saw heated arguments and a scuffle between Independent contestant Sameer Bhujbal and the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Suhas Kande creating a taut atmosphere.

The ruckus was triggered after Sameer Bhujbal with his men stopped a busload of voters from the nearby Dheku village, brought there by the rival Kande on the Nandgaon-Manmad Road.

Sameer Bhujbal was adamant that he would not allow the bus to proceed to the polling stations and an enraged Kande allegedly threatened him “that your murder is fixed” leading to clashes.

Police and ECI officials rushed to the spot to stop the fracas while some people on the bus, including a pregnant woman, claimed that they were ‘confined’ in the vehicle, and the charges are being probed now.

In Sakora, a private vehicle was intercepted with some people in it allegedly doling out cash in Sakora, sparking uproar.

The tip-off was received by one Independent contestant Rohan Borase and his supporters stopped it, but the driver fled from there. A search of the car revealed wads of currency notes and they informed the local police which launched a probe.

In Yeola constituency of Nashik, the local strongman and NCP Minister Chhagan Bhujbal was physically stopped from visiting some areas in Kharwandi by supporters of rival candidates including NCP (SP) nominee Manikrao Shinde, (once a staunch supporter of Chhagan Bhujbal).

Amid the brawl and building tensions, Bhujbal aggressively said that since he was also a candidate, he had the right to go to any polling station and nobody could prevent him.

In Mumbai, some persons allegedly prevented ruling Shiv Sena candidate Sanjay Nirupam from going around in his Dindoshi constituency, leading to angry exchanges with supporters of the Shiv Sena (UBT) strongman and rival Sunil Prabhu.

Some voters in Thane district and other towns like Navi Mumbai, Murbad, and Ambernath complained that the indelible ink on their fingers got erased after it came in contact with water.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: qnajmi@gmail.com)