Rutuja Latke of Uddhav's Sena faction wins Andheri (East) Assembly bypoll; NOTA at 2nd place
Mumbai (PTI): Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), on Sunday won the bypoll to Andheri (East) Assembly seat, bagging more than 66,000 votes, followed by the None Of The Above (NOTA) option.
The NOTA gives an option to electors not to vote in favour of any of the candidates in an election.
Latke got 66,530 votes out of the total 86,570 votes, while 12,806 votes were polled in favour of NOTA, an official said.
Latke was pitted against six independent candidates.
The November 3 byelection was necessitated due to the death of sitting Shiv Sena MLA and Rutuja Latke's Ramesh Latke in May this year. It was, however, a mere formality after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its candidate from the race.
This was the first electoral contest in Maharashtra after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government collapsed in June following a revolt by a section of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde.
After the bypoll result was declared, Thackeray said Rutuja Latke's victory showed that people were supporting Shiv Sena. "This is just the beginning of a fight. The (party) symbol is important but people look for the character too. The bypoll results show people support us," Thackeray told reporters after Rutuja Latke called on him at his residence 'Matoshree' following the victory.
Sena's Ramesh Latke had represented the Andheri (East) Assembly seat twice.
The Shiv Sena had won 56 seats in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls. Ramesh Latke's death in May brought its tally down to 55.
In June, 40 Sena legislators led by Eknath Shinde revolted against the party leadership, resulting in the collapse of the MVA government.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, both constituents of the MVA, supported Rutuja Latke's candidature.
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Anna University student suicide case: Five held
Tiruchirappalli (PTI): Five people have been arrested in connection with the death of the Anna University student, who jumped in front of a speeding train in Pudukottai district, police said on Tuesday.
The deceased, a third-year student from Virudhunagar district, was found dead on the railway track near Mandaiyur on the night of September 20 by the railway police, who later recovered a suicide note from his hostel room.
The student had, in the letter, alleged sexual assault, blackmail, and extortion by five men.
Following this, the police arrested the five suspects. A case has been registered, and further investigation is on.
