Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is leaving no stone unturned to ensure his margin of victory in the bypoll from Solapur South Assembly constituency. ‘‘Since there is no opposition nominee, my effort will be to win the May 21 by-election by a highest ever margin,’’ Shinde said. Solapur South • Number of voters: 1,75,515 • Men: 90,496 • Women: 85,019 • Covers 113 villages • 25 zonal officers, 1,300 employees and 234 polling booths • 300 electronic voting machines will be used for the first time • Polling on May 21• Counting on May 24 The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Sanjiv Sadaphule and RPI’s Sunil Waghmare against Shinde who launched his campaign a week ago. Though no senior Congress leader has visited Solapur, the Chief Minister himself has addressed a record number of meetings in the textile township. Meanwhile, Minister for Dairy Development Anandrao Deokate who represented Solapur South had resigned from the lower house to facilitate Shinde’s chances in the election. Initially, it looked like a tough battle for Shinde. However, the decks were cleared for his election when Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray declared that his party would not field a candidate against CM Shinde. Thackeray had said that a hotly-contested by-election would result in needless expenditure for the state and hence he had taken a decision not to field a candidate.
