12 Candidates In Fray For Maharashtra's Deglur Assembly Bypoll

As many as 12 candidates, including of main contenders Congress and the BJP, are left in the fray for the October 30 bypoll to the Deglur-Biloli assembly seat in Nanded district of Maharashtra, said an official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday.

As many as nine candidates opted out of the race on the last day of withdrawal of nominations on Wednesday.

"There were 34 nominations filed by 23 candidates for the Deglur-Biloli by-election necessitated after the death of sitting Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar a few months back. After the withdrawal of nominations, 12 candidates are left in the fray," the official said.

Out of the 23 nomination forms which were received, two were found to be invalid, another official said.

The Congress has fielded Jitesh Raosaheb Antapurkar, the son of the MLA who died, while the BJP has nominated Subhash Sabne, a former Shiv Sena legislator who recently joined the main opposition party in the state.

The counting of votes will take place on November 2.

The constituency, which is reserved for SC candidates, has 2,94,035 voters and shares border with Telangana.

Besides Jitesh Antapurkar and Sabne, the candidates in the fray are Uttam Ingole of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Vivek Kerkar of the Janata Dal (Secular), Parmeshwar Waghmare of the Bahujan Bharat Party and D D Waghmare of the RPI (K).

Others are independents, the second official said.