Published On : Mon, Jun 20th, 2022
National News | By Nagpur Today Nagpur News

Counting begins at last in Maharashtra council polls

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The Election Commission of India on Monday evening rejected an objection raised by the Congress over the votes cast by two ailing MLAs of the opposition BJP in the Maharashtra legislative council elections, paving the way for beginning of the counting after a delay of nearly two hours.

The counting, scheduled to start at 5 pm after end of the day-long polling, was put on hold after the Congress raised an objection over the voting by ailing BJP legislators Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap with the help of assistants, and submitted a complaint to poll officials.

Both the legislators have been unwell for a long time and the BJP had sought permission from the ECI to allow them to cast their votes with the help of assistants.

Senior Congress leader and Maharashtra minister Ashok Chavan said the two BJP legislators — Tilak and Jagtap — signed on the ECI’s register.

“If they could sign on the register, there was no need for an assistant to be with them to fill in the preferential ballot paper during the election,” he said.

However, an official said the ECI rejected the objection raised by the Congress, which has fielded two candidates for the biennial polls to the upper house of the state legislature.

Voting for the elections to 10 vacant MLC seats was held between 9 am and 4 pm at the legislature complex in south Mumbai.

In all, 11 candidates are in the fray — five of the BJP and two each of the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies, the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress.

All 285 eligible MLAs took part in the voting process.