Mumbai, Oct 18 (IANS): The stage is set for the Andheri East Assembly by-elections in Mumbai on November 3 with a total of seven candidates in the fray, after seven withdrewg from the contest, Mumbai Collector and Electoral Officer Nidhi Choudhary said on Monday.

The main contender now is Rutuja Ramesh Latke of the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray party, after her potential chief rival, ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party's nominee Murji K. Patel withdrew from the contest at the last minute.

The others left in the poll race whose elections papers were found valid include Aapki Apni Party-Peoples' Balavenkatesh V. Nadar, Right To Recall Party's Manoj S. Nayak besides four independents - Neena Khedekar, Rajesh Tripathi, Farhana Syed, and Milind Kamble.

Among the other withdrawals were: Hindustan Janata Party's Rakesh Arora, and five independents - Nicholas Almeida, Saqib Z. Mallick, Chandrakant R. Mote, Pahelsingh D. Auji, and Chandan Chaturvedi.

In view of Monday's political developments leading to the withdrawal of the BJP nominee Patel, Latke is expected to have a smooth sail in the elections, necessitated by the demise of her husband and sitting MLA Ramesh Latke in May.

Choudhary appealed to the people to come out and exercise their franchise in large numbers on November 3 - which has been declared as a general holiday for the constituency going to polls.