Saturday, January 21 2006 10:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Polling for by-elections in three Assembly and one Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra began this morning amid tight security.

The by-polls are being held in Vengurla, Sangmeshwar and Rajapur Assembly constituencies in Konkan region and Sangli Lok Sabha seat in western Maharashtra.

The Assembly by-polls were necessitated following resignation of three Shiv Sena MLAs who quit the Assembly and followed former Sena leader Narayan Rane into Congress.

All the three Shankar Kambli (Vengurla), Subhash Bane (Sangmeshwar) and Ganpat Kadam (Rajapur) are contesting as Congress nominees.

By-election for Sangli Lok Sabha constituency has been necessitated by the death of Congress MP Prakash Patil.

His son Prateek is contesting the bypoll as Congress nominee against BJP's Deepak Shinde Mhaisalkar.