Counting of Chimur and Daryapur by-elections tomorrow

Mumbai, Dec 6 (UNI) The counting for Chimur and Daryapur constituencies in Amravati and Chandrapur districts respectively of Maharashtra where by-elections took place for Assembly seats on December four, will begin tomorrow at 0800 hrs.

According to official sources, the result of Daryapur by-election is expected within two hours as it had 175 polling stations and 12 candidates while some more time will be required to get the result of Chimur which has 21 candidates and 209 polling stations.

Over 60 per cent polling was reported in Daryapur while it was around 65 per cent in Chimur.

The two seats fell vacant following resignations of former Shiv Sena MLAs Prakash Bharsakale (Daryapur) and Vijay Wadettiwar (Chimur) from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Both immediately joined the Congress and were given the Congress candidature too.

Dr Ramesh Gajabe is the BJP candidate from Chimur constituency, while the Sena has fielded Balasaheb Hinganikar from Daryapur. Mr Bharsakale was the sena MLA from this constituency since 1990.

The outcome of the two seats is a prestige issue for Revenue Minister Narayan Rane who was instrumental in the success of five out of six Congress candidates in the Assembly by-elections.

The by-election created tension between Sena and BJP as the later staked its claim on Chimur and succeeded in getting the same.

The Khairlanji massacre is likely to have an impact on the outcome of the elections since dalit organisations had decided to boycott the polls.

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