Mumbai, Feb 7: Sugarcane-rich Satara in Western Maharashtra will witness a straigh fight between the direct descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Abhasinh Raje Bhosale (Congress) and Shiv Sena nominee Hindurao Naik-Nimbalkar while there will be triangular contest in Dhule and Jalgaon constituencies in North Maharashtra.With this, there will be in all 377 candidates including 24 women in the electoral battle in 48 constituencies in the state. This was announced by the state chief electoral officer DK Shankaran here at a press conference on Saturday evening, the last day of withdrawal of nomination. There were 470 nominees who had filed their nominations till the last date of nominations on February 4. The prominent leaders who will try their luck in the ensuing elections include former chief ministers, Sharad Pawar (Baramati), AR Antulay (Kulaba) and Sudhakar Naik (Washim), former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil (Latur), BJP national general secretary Pramod Mahajan (North East Mumbai), Republican Party ofIndia leaders, Ramdas Athavale (North Central Mumbai), Prakash Ambedkar (Akola) and RS Gavai (Amravati), former Union industries minister Suresh Prabhu (Shiv Sena-Rajapur), Mahatma Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi (Samajwadi Party-North West Mumbai) and estranged Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi (Pune).In all 332 election offences have been registered in 31 parliamentary constituencies while 86 unlicensed arms have ben seized and 6,941 licensed arms have been deposited and 8,489 persons have ben arrested as preventive measure.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
