Council polls: counting in Osmanabad-Beed-Latur seat deferred

Counting of votes for the Osmanabad-Beed-Latur local bodies seat in the Maharashtra Legislative Council will not be take place tomorrow, state election officials said this evening.

Counting for six seats where biennial elections to the state's Upper House took place on May 21 is slated for tomorrow. However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) today deferred the counting for the Osmanabad-Beed-Latur constituency.

A letter by ECI secretary Sumar Kumar Das to the chief electoral officer, Maharashtra said the commission had decided to defer the counting precess following "reports received from returning officer for the seat in respect of peaceful completion of poll".

The Osmanabad-Beed-Latur seat saw a contest between Suresh Dhas of the BJP and Ashok Jagdale, an independent supported by the NCP and Congress.

The NCP had fielded Ramesh Karad, a former BJP worker and a close associate of state Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde. The party found itself in a fix when Karad withdrew his nomination on the last day.

The NCP subsequently declared support for Jagdale as it could not nominate its own candidate.

The other five constituencies which went to polls on May 21 are: Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Nashik, Parbhani-Hingoli, Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli and Amaravati.