Maharashtra Legislative Council Election: BJP Contested 4 Seats
Highlight
- BJP is ahead in just one seat of the Maharashtra Legislative Council
- Congressional Shiv Sena-NCP coalition leads in four of six seats
- Lone Seine candidate behind Amravati
Mumbai:
The BJP appeared headed for a polling setback today in Maharashtra, where it lost power last year. Of the five seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council where elections were held earlier this week, the BJP is only ahead by one. The ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition is leading in four seats and an independent member is set to win the remaining seat.
It was also voted in a sixth seat, for the elections of the local organs.
The Shiv Sena, however, may end up scoring a duck even though his alliance partners lead in four seats. His only candidate was behind an independent candidate in Amravati.
The BJP seems to have lost in its so-called strongholds, the graduate districts. His biggest loss is the Nagpur seat, a party stronghold that was represented in the past by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and the father of former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Gangadhar Rao Fadnavis. Gadkari, who won the constituency for the first time in 1989, scored four more victories from there before contesting the 2014 elections in Lok Sabha that brought the BJP to power in the center.
BJP leaders, including Fadnavis and Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil, also campaigned extensively in Pune, where the ruling coalition candidate won.
Sharad Pawar’s NCP or Nationalist Congress Party is ahead in the graduate constituencies of Aurangabad and Pune.
The elections held on Tuesday were seen as a prestigious battle between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray and the opposition BJP, who have clashed in a series of controversies in recent months. This is also the first electoral test for the year-long coalition of ideologically opposed parties, which has been repeatedly ridiculed by the BJP as an unstable entity.
“The result is a reflection of the performance of the MVA government in the last year,” Sharad Pawar told the PTI news agency.
Among the ruling coalition partners, the NCP and Congress contested two seats each and the Shiv Sena ran its candidate for one seat.
The BJP contested four seats and an Independiente supported by the party disputed in another seat.
PCN MP Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar, congratulated the winning coalition candidates in a tweet. “Good morning! To the Hon. Ajit Dada and the Hon. Jayant Patil Ji. Thanking all the voters who voted for the Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates. This victory would not have been possible without the hard work of all our candidates, workers. of the party and the guidance of our leaders, “wrote Ms. Sule.
More than 12 lakh graduates and teachers participated in the biennial surveys. Each constituency includes multiple districts, so the number of voters is significant.
Maharashtra’s legislative council or upper house has 78 seats. Seven are graduate and teacher constituencies. In a graduate constituency, the voter must be a graduate of a recognized university. In a teachers’ constituency, the voter must be a full-time teacher.
On December 1, voting took place in the graduate constituencies of Aurangabad, Pune and Nagpur and in the teachers’ districts of Pune and Amravati.
Amrish Patel of the BJP won a seat from the local body, Dhule Nandurbar. The by-election was held when Mr. Patel left Congress to join the BJP.
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