Andheri East Assembly Bypoll: BJP candidate withdraws nomination

The Bharatiya Janata Party would not run in the November 3 bypoll to Andheri East Assembly seat in Mumbai, Maharashtra party chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule revealed on Monday.

"The BJP has decided not to contest the Andheri East bypoll. Murji Patel, who had filed the nomination from the BJP, will now withdraw it. We could have otherwise won the election," Bawankule said in Nagpur.

"The BJP had previously also not contested some of the bypolls," he added.


Monday is the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the Andheri East Assembly bypoll, necessitated due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May this year.

The deadline to withdraw from the Andheri East Assembly byelection, which was required since Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke passed away in May of this year, is Monday.

Rutuja Latke, the wife of Ramesh Latke, has been put forward for election by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday sought for Rutuja Latke to be elected without opposition in the byelection, while Raj Thackeray, the president of the MNS, pleaded with Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, not to field the BJP's candidate out of respect for the late Ramesh Latke.

Inputs from PTI