Independent candidate Balasaheb Shinde, contesting the elections from Beed, Maharashtra, passed away on polling day after suffering a sudden heart attack at a voting booth.
Shinde was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital and then transferred to another facility for advanced care. However, doctors at both hospitals declared him dead.
End of voting for 288 seats
Maharashtra on Wednesday witnessed polling for all 288 assembly seats to elect a new government, with the votes to be counted on November 23. Balasaheb Shinde, an independent candidate from Beed, suffered a heart attack while waiting to cast his vote when the election was being held. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Possibility of postponing the election
The incident took place at Chhatrapati Shahu Vidyalaya polling station in Beed. Shinde's body has been sent for post-mortem. According to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, in case of the death of a candidate during the conduct of elections, elections for the seats concerned may be postponed under Section 52.
Beed seat and political dynamics
Once a bastion of Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Beed Assembly seat now falls under the Ajit Pawar faction of the BJP-Eknath Shinde-Shiv Sena in the state in the BJP-led Mahayuthi alliance with opposition Mahavikas Aghadi alliance of Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction.
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