9 candidates pull out of election fray in Thane district

Nine candidates withdrew their nomination from the Lok Sabha constituencies in Thane district on Friday — the last day of withdrawing nominations.

This means, 66 candidates are in the fray for the three Lok Sabha seats in the district.

Till April 10, a total of 75 candidates were in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections from Thane district.

A district official said, “Two candidates from Thane, four from Kalyan and three from Bhiwandi withdrew their nomination on Friday. Thane has 23 candidates, Kalyan 28 and Bhiwandi has 15 candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls. We also distributed election symbols to the candidates on Friday.”

Those who withdrew their nomination are Vijay Ghate (Republican Bahujan Samaj) and Mohammad Salim Mohar Ali Choudhary (Independent) from Thane; Jyotiram Sarode (Independent), Devendra Singh (Independent), Sureshkumar Pal (Independent) and Sandesh Ingle (Independent) from Kalyan and Vishwanath Patil (Independent), Suresh Mhatre (Independent) and Yogesh Kathore (Independent).

In Bhiwandi constituency, both the rebel candidates — Patil from the Congress and Mhatre from Shiv Sena —withdrew their nomination.

Mhatre said, “I was not against the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, but I had filed the nomination against the present BJP candidate from Bhiwandi, Kapil Patil. I withdrew my application to respect the orders of my party superiors.”

The Thane election commission distributed election symbols to unrecognised party candidates and Independents on Friday.

Anil Pawar, returning officer of Thane Lok Sabha constituency, said, “Some of the symbols allotted today were common objects like grapes, red chillies, fountain, water tank, air conditioner, autorickshaw, camera, key and cup and saucer among other.”

After the final list of candidates was declared, Thane and Kalyan will have two ballot units while Bhiwandi will have one. The district election commission will have to conduct a re-randomisation of the available electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Pawar said the Thane constituency will require 2,452 more ballot units.

More than 2,500 physically challenged voters in Thane

“As per our survey, there are 2573 physically challenged voters from Thane. We have also analysed the polling centres of these voters. Around 1,774 physically challenged voters have their centre on the ground floor, 728 voters have on the first floor and 71 on second floor. We are planning to provide volunteers who can carry these voters on a chair to the first and second floors,” said Pawar.

Code of Conduct violations

The Thane election commission has pulled down 1,784 posters, banners and cut-outs from across the constituency.

Pawar said, “Forty-three posters installed on private buildings were also removed. We have filed cases in three incidents for putting up illegal posters and banners and violating the code of conduct. In Belapur, we found a vehicle carrying Rs10 lakh cash. The owner could not give us an explanation and we have started an inquiry against him. We have also alerted the IT officials.”

The constituency has 18 flying squads, three in each of the six assembly constituencies, video surveillance team, static surveillance team, excise team and the police department to keep a watch on violators.

First Published: Apr 13, 2019 00:34 IST