New Delhi: Voting began for Assembly bypolls in Kasba and Chinchwad in Maharashtra's Pune district on Sunday. The fight is between BJP's Hemant Rasne and Maha Vikas Aghadi's Ravindra Dhangekar in Kasba, while in Chinchwad the candidates are the ruling alliance's Ashwini Jagtap and the opposition's Nana Kate.
Preparations were ensured ahead of the polling today.
Campaigning for the Assembly bypolls in Kasba and Chinchwad ended at 6 pm on Friday. The bypolls in Kasba and Chinchwad have been necessitated due to the death of Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, respectively.
Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate from Kasba, Ravindra Dhangekar, had gone on a hunger strike claiming the BJP distributed money to voters. He ended the strike after police assured him they would investigate the matter, news agency PTI reported.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday refuted the allegations.
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Hitting back, Fadnavis said, "The BJP does not have the culture of distributing money. Whether we win or lose, we never distribute money. When someone is losing ground they make such allegations. We are winning in Kasba and Chinchwad."
"These allegations are not against the BJP but are aimed at insulting the voters of Kasba. The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party does not have the right to speak about voters in this manner," Fadnavis told reporters at Nagpur airport, as quoted by PTI.
Before this, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde refuted talk of a communal colour being given to the campaign. He instead alleged that a Congress corporator made objectionable remarks in a meeting addressed by NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Votes for the bypolls will be counted on March 2.