Thaindian News

Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS) In a “typographical error”, the Maharashtra state election commission changed the political party and symbol of Congress candidate Praniti Shinde to that of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Praniti, daughter of central Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, was duly declared the party candidate for the Solapur city central assembly constituency, falling in her home district Solapur, for the Oct 13 poll.

However, the list of candidates published by the state election commission shows her as an NCP candidate contesting on the party symbol of a clock.

Though the two parties have been allies for the past 10 years and are jointly contesting the Oct 13 elections, with hopes of returning to power for the third consecutive term, the seat does not even fall in the quota of the NCP.

The district election office feigned ignorance and sought to know where the mistake had occurred.

However, a senior official of the state election commission in Mumbai felt it could merely be a “typographical error” and promised to look into it.

He said the error would be corrected in time for the elections.

Besides Praniti, there are another 11 candidates contesting the Solapur city seat, including from the Shiv Sena, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), Shivrajya Party and five Independents.

Praniti is one of the three “VIP” candidates contesting the state assembly polls on a Congress ticket. Amit Deshmukh, son of Heavy Industries minister and former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is contesting from Latur City assembly constituency and Rajendra Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil, as its candidate from the prestigious Amravati assembly constituency of Vidarbha in eastern Maharashtra.