Voting for Graduate constituency on December 1
   Date :03-Nov-2020

Voting _1  H x
 
 
 
Principal Correspondent :
 
Congress tries to snatch seat; BJP endeavours to retain
 
 
With Election Commission announcing the date of polls for graduate and teachers constituency elections, the long wait has ended. With only two parties would be contesting mainly as Congress would try to snatch the seat from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the later will endeavor to retain it. The election commission on Monday has declared the election schedule of graduate as well as teachers constituency. The constituency is considered as stronghold of BJP and never even witnessed slightest chance of defeat.
 
BJP has upper hand in the constituency as it has been winning it since late Gangadhar Fadnavis, father of former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis. Later on Nitin Gadkari became the invincible leader of this constituency. This time BJP still has not declared anybody’s name as its candidate. Of course BJP has an edge over other candidates as it is a cadre-based party so voters in this constituency vote for the party. Surprisingly for the first time in the history of Graduate constituency elections, Congress declared the name of Adv Abhijit Wanjari long ago on March 12, 2020.
 
This time Congress will try to strong efforts to snatch this traditional seat from BJP. With Party head endorsing his name, Adv Abhijit Wanjari started his campaign then and there. Till now he has reached 1.85 voters of 63 talukas, 32 assembly constituencies, 6 Lok Sabha constituencies. Wanjari has the experience of contesting elections in university so he has that reach. Till now he has made two rounds of campaign of all six districts. Meanwhile the notification issued by election commission says, ‘considering unforseen situation of public health emergency due to Covid 19 and the guidelines and orders passed under the Disaster Management Act 2005, by the competent authority, the Election Commission on July 16, 2020 passed an order under Article 324 of Constitution of India read with section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and directed that the process of election should be initiated at a later date after reviewing the situation. 
 
Guidelines Every person shall wear mask during every election related activity At the entry of hall there would be thermal scanning of all persons, sanitizer will be made available. Social distancing is to be maintained as per the guidelines of State Government and Ministry of Home Affairs.
 
Model code of conduct comes into effect With the declaration of schedule of graduate constituency and teachers constituency elections, the District Collector Ravindra Thakare has issued the circular of implementation of election code of conduct with immediate effect on November 2 at 5 pm. The circular says all the posters, banners, flex, wall posters should be removed within 24 hours. No bhoomipujan programmes, stone laying ceremonies would not be held.