BMC Election 2017: 3 poll-related deaths reported in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Three poll-related deaths were reported in Maharashtra, where elections for ten municipal corporations - including the cash-rich Mumbai civic body - and eleven zilla parishads (ZPs) were held on Tuesday. In Solapur, a senior citizen Gangadhar Shete died after he collapsed at a polling booth in ward No 8 at the G L Kulkarni school, police said. According to police, in Akola, a voter Deepak Khanzode died after returning home from a polling booth.

In Ratnagiri, a senior citizen Mahadev Chalke died while standing in a queue at a polling booth in Sukivli, for zilla parishad polls. In Mulund, Shiv Sena workers gheraoed BJP MLA Sardar Tarasingh, alleging that he was actively canvassing for BJP outside polling booth, in violation of poll panel norms. In Satara district, there was stone pelting on the vehicle of NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosle, after which he lodged a police complaint at the Medha police station.

In Mumbai, BJP leader Shaina NC went to the polling booth at Napean Sea Road on a bicycle, which had image of BJP lotus symbol and PM Modi in the front. “If Mumbaikars really love the city, they should vote,” she said. This was the first BMC poll which Sena fought under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership, after demise of late Bal Thackeray in November 2012, a few months after the last BMC poll.

MRCC president Sanjay Nirupam said ‘some’ Congress leaders worked to ‘defeat his leadership’ in the BMC polls. According to an official statement by the BMC, the civic body’s estimated expenditure on today’s Mumbai election was Rs 95 crore.