From rxpgnews.com
Polls in Maharashtra home minister's constituency put off
By IANS,
Mar 9, 2007 - 10:29:49 PM
Mumbai, March 9 - Maharashtra's poll panel Friday postponed to March 15 elections to district and village council belonging to Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil's assembly constituency in Sangli district after opposition Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party - candidates complained they were forced to withdraw under duress.
The state election commission's action in Patil's constituency follows investigation of the complaints by its secretary P.S. Meena and submission of report to the State Election Commissioner Nand Lal.
In an unprecedented development Thursday, Tasgaon police had registered a complaint against Patil, who holds home portfolio in the Democratic Front government, following a complaint lodged by Shiv Sena candidate Panchakshar Jangam that the minister pressurised him to withdraw his candidature from Dongarsoni panchayat samiti constituency in Tasgaon.
Jangam said Nationalist Congress Party - workers forcibly took him to Patil's cotton mill where the minister himself pressurised him to sign an application to withdraw from the fray. Three more candidates, including one of BJP, among nine who had withdrawn their candidature from the March 11 election, had voiced similar complaint. But none of them had registered a complaint with the police.
As many as nine candidates withdrawing from the fray and facilitating unopposed election of NCP candidates was construed as evidence of pressure brought to bear on them by the deputy chief minister. Even Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had made an oblique reference to the case of nine withdrawals saying elections cannot be won through misuse of police machinery.
BJP leader Prakash Javdekar had subsequently complained to the state election commissioner Nand Lal about Patil's pressure tactics and urged him to intervene in the matter. Patil dismissed the allegations and said the state police's crime branch will be asked to probe the whole case.
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