Poll din ends in Maharashtra's Ramtek parliamentary constituency

Nagpur, Apr 7 (UNI) Electioneering for the April 9 byelection from Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra ended today.

The campaigning came to an end at 1700 hrs this evening.

The three main candidates in the fray Mr Subodh Mohite of the Congress, Mr Prakash Jadhav of the Shiv Sena, and Congress rebel Mr Ranjit Deshmukh, contesting as an independent - and their supporters held rallies in various parts of the constituency to woo the voters.

Prominent leaders of the Congress who participated in the rallies for Mr Mohite included All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Margaret Alva, Secretary Siddharth Patel, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) President Prabha Rau, Vice President Prabhavati Oza, Union Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources Vilas Muttemwar, Maharashtra Minister for Revenue Narayan Rane, Minister for Textiles Satish Chaturvedi.

Those who sought votes for Mr Jadhav included Shiv Sena Working President Uddhav Thackeray, Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Ramdas Kadam, former Union Minister for Power Anant Geete, Mumbai Mayor Shobha Raul, legislators Neelam Gorhe, Vijayraj Shinde and Deepak Sawant, besides Shetkari Sanghatana chief Sharad Joshi and Swatantra Bharat Party (SBP) legislator Wamanrao Chatap.

Although 12 candidates are in the fray in the constituency, the real fight is between Mr Mohite, Mr Jadhav and Mr Deshmukh.

The byelection is being held because Mr Mohite, who was elected in 2004 on a Shiv Sena ticket, resigned from the party and the House to join the Congress.

Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency includes five assembly segments in Nagpur district - Umrer, Kalameshwar, Katol, Saoner and Ramtek and one in the neighbouring Amravati district Morshi. There are a total of 11,66,011 voters, including 6,12,677 male voters and 5,59,334 female voters. Polling will take place on April 9 at 1,180 polling booths. Of these, 106 have been identified as sensitive, which includeding 5 in Umrer, 14 in Kalameshwar, 21 in Katol, 39 in Saoner, 18 in Ramtek and 9 in Morshi. Counting is scheduled to take place on April 12.

UNI