The campaigning for the elections to the Graduates' and Teachers' constituency seats in Pune division ended on Sunday. The voting for one seat each in the two categories for the Maharashtra Legislative Council will take place on Tuesday. Since this is the first election in the state amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the candidates had to adopt novel methods and techniques for the campaign. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has nominated Arun Lad for Graduates' constituency and Jayant Asgaonkar for Teachers' constituency against BJP's Sangram Deshmukh and Jitendra Pawar, respectively. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the Aam Aadmi Party have nominated Rupali Patil and Amol Pawar, respectively, in the Graduates' constituency. There are 5.25 lakh registered voters in Graduate's constituency and 1.18 lakh voters in Teachers' constituency in Pune Division. Vacancies in these constituencies were created owing to the resignation of BJP’s Chandrakant Patil, who was elected to the state Legislative Assembly from Kothrud last year. The tenure of Dattatraya Sawant, who was representing the teachers’ community, ended in July this year. Candidates have put up banners across Pune city, which holds largest number of voters in both constituencies among all five districts in the division, while various political parties have been using social media to canvas for their candidates. Some public rallies have also been held by leaders including state cabinet ministers in recent days. Liquor shops shut Pune District Collector Rajesh Deshmukh has announced that all liquor shops and bars will remain shut for the voting and counting of votes. The closure came into effect from Sunday morning, 48 hours before the voting day, and will continue till the end of voting on December 1. The shops would be allowed to open after 5 pm on Tuesday when the voting will end. The shops will remain open on December 2, before closing again on December 3, when the votes will be counted and results will be announced, officials said.
