Mumbai:

Zeeshan Siddique, the NCP candidate from Bandra East, voted today in the Maharashtra Assembly elections and said that it was the first time he came to a polling booth without his father Baba Siddique. Mr Siddique, a prominent NCP leader and former minister, was gunned down on October 12 near his son’s office by attackers allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

“For the first time, I have come alone to vote. My father is no more. This is different but this will have to be done. I know that my father is with me. I started my day by visiting the graveyard in the morning…I think everyone must vote,” Zeeshan Siddique said. 

#WATCH | “For the first time, I have come alone to vote. My father (Baba Siddiqui) is no more. This is different but this will have to be done”: Zeeshan Siddique

Video courtesy: ANI/X#Babasiddique#ZeeshanSiddique#MaharahstraElection2024pic.twitter.com/Ibfs5dWvWR

— NDTV (@ndtv) November 20, 2024

The 32-year-old former Congress leader faces Varun Sardesai, Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray’s nephew, in a high-stakes battle in Bandra East. Zeeshan Siddique joined the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the NCP in October. Mr Siddique will defend the Bandra East seat he won in the 2019 election when he was with the Congress.

Maharashtra’s single-phase assembly elections saw polling begin at 7 am across 288 constituencies, with voting set to conclude at 6 pm. Over 9.7 crore voters are registered to choose among 4,136 candidates contesting this year, marking a 28 per cent rise from 2019’s 3,239 candidates.

The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are vying for control of the assembly. The Mahayuti includes the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), while the MVA brings together the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).

Key figures in the elections include Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, contesting from Baramati against his nephew Yugendra Pawar, marking another compelling electoral contest.

Palghar:

A 10-year-old girl from Nalasopara in Maharashtra’s Palghar is battling for life at a Mumbai hospital, where she was admitted a week after her female tuition teacher hit her on her ears leading to health complications, police said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred on October 7, they said.

The girl developed health complications a week later and fell unconscious. She has been in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital, an official of Tulinj police station said.

“The 20-year-old private tuition teacher severely hit the girl on her ears, due to which she suffered from deafness in the beginning but soon developed health complications. The minor was initially admitted to a local hospital and later shifted to a medical facility in Mumbai,” he said.

The girl is still unconscious, and based on a complaint lodged by her parents, a case has been registered against the teacher, he added.

The police have served a notice to the teacher, the police official said, adding that investigation into the case was on.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)