An independent candidate from Beed died of a heart attack on Wednesday while waiting in a queue at a polling station in Maharashtra, police said. The candidate was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
The incident happened at the Chhatrapati Shahu Vidyalaya polling booth and coincided with a crucial day of polling across 288 seats in Maharashtra. The votes will be counted on November 23.
Witnesses described how Balasaheb Shinde suddenly collapsed in the polling station. He was first taken to Kaku Nana Hospital in Beed before being transferred to Chhatrapati Shambhaji Nagar Hospital, where he was declared dead by doctors. The body was sent for post-mortem, police said.
According to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, if a candidate dies during an election, voting for the affected seat can be postponed as per the procedure prescribed under Section 52.
Beed assembly seat is considered historic, having been a bastion for Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party. The Ajit Pawar-led faction now belonged to the group in NCP which has allied with BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena after the split in NCP.
The electoral battle in Maharashtra is between the Mahayuti coalition, comprising the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance led by Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP.
