In a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has nearly won four out of six seats in the legislative council elections. Although the results for two teacher electoral district seats have not yet been officially announced, the margin between the two main candidates is huge and unlikely to change.
Three graduate constituencies in Aurangabad, Nagpur, and Pune, two teachers’ districts in Pune and Amravati, and one local body constituency in Dhule-Nandurbar went to the polls on December 1. Of the six seats, four have been practically packed by MVA which includes Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress. Independent candidate Kiran Sarnaik, who leads the Amravati teachers’ constituency, is also likely to support the ruling alliance in the Upper House.
Abhijit Wanjari from Congress has defeated BJP’s Sandip Joshi by a large margin from Nagpur’s graduate constituency. The BJP had preserved the constituency since its inception and was represented on five occasions by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, and also by the late Gangadharrao Fadnavis, father of former Prime Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Similarly, in Pune, NCP’s Arun Lad won in the graduate constituency, while Congressional Jayant Asgaonkar leads by a wide margin in the teachers constituency. Both seats have been a failure for the BJP.
NCP’s Satish Chavan has won from the Aurangabad graduate constituency for the third time in a row. His margin was over 57,000 votes and he defeated BJP’s Shirish Boralkar.
In the Amravati teachers’ constituency, independent candidate Kiran Sarnaik was ahead of his closest rivals Shrikant Deshpande of Shiv Sena with a comfortable majority.
Meanwhile, Amrish Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party won the votes of the Dhule-Nandurbar constituency of local bodies by defeating Abhijit Patil of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi by 234 votes. Patel got 332 votes, while Patil got 98 votes. Congressional leaders have expressed surprise at the defeat, as the MVA has 213 members in local bodies, while the BJP’s strength is 199. Patel had switched sides to join the BJP by resigning from Congress before the election. from the assembly last year.
This is being seen as a great victory for the ruling MVA, who has announced that in the future he will participate in all elections, including that of local bodies, together. The ruling party leaders have said it is a sign of acceptance by the MVA leadership. “The BJP has been decimated in 24 districts of the state during the municipal elections that were fought directly. This is MVA’s ‘Maharashtra Express’, ”said former chief minister, public works department minister and congressional leader Ashok Chavan.
“The results are not according to our expectations, as we expected to win more seats. We miscalculate the combined power of the three ruling parties under the MVA, ”said opposition leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
.
