Mumbai, Andheri East Bypoll Result Live Updates: Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Rituja Latke arrives at the vote counting station in Andheri. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)Mumbai News Today, Andheri East Bypoll Result 2022, November 06, 2022: The counting of votes in the Andheri East Bypoll elections ended with Shiv Sena candidate Rutuja Latke emerging as the victorious candidate. Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray thanks the NCP, Congress and VBA for their support, but also hit out at the BJP for campaigning for NOTA votes. “Had the BJP contested these polls, the NOTA votes would have gone to them,” he said.
Who is Rutuja Latke, Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena candidate for Andheri East bypoll
Meanwhile, a special court earlier this week rejected pleas filed by two accused booked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), alleged to be Bangladeshi citizens living in India on forged documents, stating that their pleas admitting guilt cannot be held voluntary, clear and unambiguous. Mohammed Rippen Hussain and Mohammed Hassan Ali Mohammed Amir Ali had said in their pleas that while they have been booked under sections where the maximum punishment is five years, they have already spent nearly four years in jail.
In other news, actors Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor welcomed a baby girl at the H N Reliance Hospital today. The actress underwent a C-section surgery. The couple tied the knot in April this year after being in a relationship for around five years.
With altered political equations in the state, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena appears to be gravitating towards the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, a key factor to watch for ahead of the Mumbai civic polls where Marathi votes play a crucial role.
Ever since the fall of the government led by Raj Thackeray’s estranged cousin and arch-rival Uddhav Thackeray in June, the bonhomie between Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis has led to a buzz of new political alignments.
Shinde and Fadnavis met Raj Thackeray for MNS’ Deepotsav event in Shivaji Park on the eve of Diwali. The brewing chemistry was evident when the trio walked together to the venue in Shivaji Park from the residence of the MNS chief. Read more here
A video showed Jikky, a three-year-old labrador who is the youngest member of the Mumbai Customs' K9 squad, inspecting the courier terminal. Recently, the Mumbai unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) announced that it will soon have its own dedicated narcotics detection dogs to sniff out drug couriers.
Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a moral high ground while announcing the withdrawal of its candidate from Andheri (East) assembly bypoll claiming it was in accordance with Maharashtra political culture of not contesting against the kin of deceased MLA, the party in the past has chosen to fight byelections against the relatives of late MLAs.
Read the full story here
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said the result of the byelection to the Andheri (East) constituency showed that people rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party's "politics of horse-trading and terrorising political opponents".
Patole expressed confidence that the Congress and its allies would defeat the BJP in the coming elections. He said the Andheri (East) bypoll result shows that people don't trust the 'ED' (Eknath Shinde- Devendra Fadnavis) government. (PTI)
Even as Rutuja Latke said no celebrations of her Andheri East bypoll victory will be held, visuals showed supporters gathering to welcome the poll results.
The Mumbai Traffic police on Friday issued an order providing alternate routes to motorists in the wake of the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in Andheri being shut from November 7 until further instructions for any vehicular movement and pedestrians.
A portion of the bridge had collapsed in 2018, killing two people and injuring three others.
Here are the alternate routes
While congratulating Rutuja Latke on her win in the Andheri East bypoll, BJP Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar said the victory comes with "BJP's help".
"The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) did not mobilise more votes. Had BJP contested the by-elections, Shiv Sena candidate would have lost. So, Shiv Sena (UBT) should realise Rutuja Latke's win is with the help of BJP," he said.
The Andheri East assembly constituency was formed in the year 2009 after delimitation in the year 2008.
In the 2009 Assembly elections, Suresh Shetty of Congress had won the seat by consolidating a total of 55,990 votes and defeating Ramesh Latke who had got the 50,837 votes.
In the next Assembly elections of 2014, Shiv Sena's Latke contested the elections and won by consolidating a total of 52,692 votes and by defeating Suresh Shetty of Congress and Sunil Yadav of BJP. In 2019, Latke again won the elections by defeating Patel who rebelled from BJP and contested as an independent candidate as the BJP. Sena contested the assembly election in alliance then.
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Andheri East bypoll winner Rutuja Latke dedicated her victory to her late husband and the development works he did in the constituenct during his tenure as MLA.
She said, "I thank everyone for supporting me. The turnout in the by-elections was low. This is the result of sympathy and hard work of my husband. My husband made a promise. I will try to complete it."
"If BJP had any sympathy, they would not have filled the form earlier. Votes met by NOTA belong to BJP. A survey was conducted before the elction and they knew that they were losing hence they withdrew the nomination of their candidate," Latke said.
She also mentioned that there will be no kind of celebrations of vistory in Andheri East bypolls.
Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), on Sunday won the bypoll to Andheri (East) Assembly seat in Mumbai by bagging more than 66,000 votes, followed by 12,806 votes polled in favour of the None Of The Above (NOTA) option, an official said.
Latke got 66,530 votes out of the total 86,570 votes.
The NOTA gives an option to electors not to vote in favour of any of the candidates in an election.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief said the victory of Rutuja Latke in the Andheri (East) Assembly bypoll shows people are supporting Shiv Sena.
'This is just the beginning of a fight. The (party) symbol is important but people look for the character too. The bypoll results show people support us,' Thackeray told reporters after Rutuja Latke called on him at his residence 'Matoshree' after the victory.
'This victory is a beginning of a fight. I appeal to Shiv Sainiks to fight unitedly for all future battles. Our party's name and symbol were frozen for this election but those who wanted this are nowhere near the electoral ring,' Thackeray said.
With altered political equations in the state, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena appears to be gravitating towards the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, a key factor to watch for ahead of the Mumbai civic polls where Marathi votes play a crucial role.
Ever since the fall of the government led by Raj Thackeray's estranged cousin and arch-rival Uddhav Thackeray in June, the bonhomie between Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis has led to a buzz of new political alignments.
Shinde and Fadnavis met Raj Thackeray for MNS' Deepotsav event in Shivaji Park on the eve of Diwali. The brewing chemistry was evident when the trio walked together to the venue in Shivaji Park from the residence of the MNS chief.
Last month, Raj Thackeray had written a letter to Fadnavis, urging him to withdraw BJP's candidate from the Andheri East Assembly bypoll in favour of late Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke's wife. The BJP later withdrew its candidate from the race, for which Raj Thackeray thanked Fadnavis. (PTI)
As many as 200 officials were involved in the counting process which commenced at 8 am, and saw 19 rounds of counting.
The Mumbai Police also deputed 300 personnel to maintain law and order.
Voting for the by-election, necessitated due to the death of sitting Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May this year, was held on November 3 and witnessed a low voter turnout of 31.74 percent.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, both constituents of the MVA, have supported Rutuja Latke's candidature.
While Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray met the party's Andheri East bypoll candidate Rutuja Latke after her victory, workers celebrated the results of the first political showdown between the Uddhav Sena and Shinde Sena since the party split.
Earlier this week, the Mercedes Benz company had submitted to the Palghar Police a technical analysis report based on the scrutiny of the Event Data Recorder of the damaged vehicle, which helped the police in ascertaining that the vehicle was overspeeding when it crashed on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway on September 4, killing two, including Cyrus Mistry, former head of Tata Sons.
Sources in the Palghar Police said the report proved that Anahita Pandole, who was driving the car, was overspeeding and could not apply brakes in time to prevent the accident. Read more
Nationalist Congress Party MLC Amol Mitkari on Saturday said there was “some secret about the future” in the meeting that had taken place between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Friday.
“CM Eknath Shinde on Friday met our party chief in Breach Candy Hospital. And then the CM himself said that our party chief will be attending the Shirdi convention and then return to the hospital… there is some secret about the future in this meeting between the two leaders,” Mitkari told reporters in Shirdi. Read more
Rutuja Latke met Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray at his residence Matoshree in Bandra after her win in the Andheri East bypoll.
Thackeray congratulated her and thanked the NCP, Congress, Sambhaji Brigade and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, along with other parties, for showing their support. "They had taken away our party symbol and name citing this election, but I am glad we won with such a huge margin. I thank the Congress, NCP, Sambhaji Brigade and Vanchit Bahujan Agahadi, along with others, for supporting us in this election.," Uddhav said.
He added, "I am happy that the battle has started with a victory and we will win in the future as well."
While hitting out at BJP, Thackeray said, "It is clear that there was a use of NOTA in the elections. There was campaigning for NOTA. Had the BJP contested the election, the party would have got the votes as much votes NOTA has got."
Actors Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor welcomed a baby girl at Mumbai's Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital on Sunday.
"It's a girl. She arrived at the 7.30 am for the delivery. She (Alia) has been coming to the hospital regularly between 11 am-12 pm for the past few days," the a hospital insider sais PTI. Ranbir and Alia got married in April.
Shiv Sena leader Neelam Gorhe said that victory is definite for Rutuja Latke. She added that BJP had to withdraw its official candidate Murji Patel because he was 'controversial' and was facing legal challenges. Gorhe said that there were possibilities of BJP transferring its vote share into NOTA.
Shiv Sena candidate Rutuja Latke led with 45278 votes at the end of the twelfth round of counting in the Andheri East bypoll. NOTA followed with a total of 8887 votes.