Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Voting for the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation CSMC) Elections were held peacefully on Thursday in Prabhag No. 1-Harsul, Prabhag No. 2 Bharatnagar–Wankhedenagar (N-12), and Prabhag No. 7: N-12.
From morning itself, voters had formed queues at polling stations in these areas. Minor disputes occurred in some places. Objections were raised at a few polling stations over alleged bogus voting.
Enthusiasm was seen among voters in localities such as Phulenagar, Khatrinagar, Bhagat Singh Nagar, Mhasobanagar, Harsul village, Beribag, Ektanagar, Jahangir Colony, Radhswami Colony, Sara Vaibhav, Raj Nagar, Saeeda Colony in Prabhag 1.
There was heavy crowding at polling stations at Beribag, Kolthanwadi Road, Municipal Marathi-Urdu School, Municipal New Settlement School, and New High School, Harsul.
Candidates of various parties and their supporters made considerable efforts to bring voters out of their homes. As the election was being held on a Prabhag basis, workers of the candidates were guiding voters outside polling stations on how to cast their votes.
Areas such as Bharatnagar, Wankhedenagar, Honajinagar, Patel Planet, Muzaffarnagar, Yadav Nagar, Navjeevan Colony, MSEB Power House, Mayurnagar, Deepnagar and Sudarshannagar in Prabhag No-2 had strong enthusiasm among voters.
Queues were seen in the morning and evening at polling stations, Maulana Azad College, Nutan Multi-Purpose School, and SBOA. There were also long lines in N-12, CIDCO, N-11, Pavannagar, and MHADA in Prabhag 7.
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Objection to T-shirts with ward codes
One political party had appointed a very young man as a polling agent at Sant Meera High School polling station in Cidco N-3 ward. He was wearing saffron T-shirt printed with “MH-23” and below it the letters A, B, C, D, along with specific numbers. These T-shirts were worn by the polling agents.
An independent woman candidate objected to this, and candidates of other political parties also raised objections. Since the number of candidates from Ward No. 23 and A, B, C, D were printed, it was alleged that this amounted to indirect campaigning for the panel of a particular political party.
The independent woman candidate who raised the objection was verbally abused, worsening the atmosphere. Before the police force arrived, the situation had calmed down and the dispute was resolved.