BJP bags 5 seats in Maha MLC polls; blow for MVA
HTC and Agencies
MUMBAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won all five seats it contested in the Maharashtra legislative council on Monday, dealing another setback to the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.
Two candidates each of ruling coalition allies Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) sailed through, but their MVA partner Congress suffered a jolt as it managed to bag just one seat due to crossvoting.
Ten council seats were up for grabs and 11 candidates were in the fray for the elections — five of the BJP and two each of the Sena, the NCP and the Congress. While the BJP had enough numbers in the assembly to get four nominees elected easily, its fifth candidate Prasad Lad, too, made it to the state’s Upper House after securing support from MLAS outside his party’s pool of legislators.
The results of the legislative council polls have come as a boost to the BJP, which just 10 days ago, managed to win a third Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra despite lacking in numbers in the assembly, and in the process manage to defeat its former ally, the Shiv Sena.
“3 out of 3 and now 5 out of 5! Whether it is Rajya Sabha or Vidhan Parishad. Only BJP will win!” BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis tweeted late on Monday.
The result came despite chief minister Uddhav Thackeray going to the assembly soon after voting began to ensure there was no setback.
Chairman of Legislative Council and NCP candidate Ramraje Nimbalkar, Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Pravin Darekar of the BJP and former BJP minister and now NCP nominee Eknath Khadse easily bagged sufficient firstpreference votes to post wins.
Both the candidates of the Shiv Sena -- Sachin Ahir and Aamshya Padavi -- also won the election, while the two nominees of the Congress, which is part of the ruling coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), failed to secure the minimum quota of the first preference votes. The second Congress candidate, Chandrakant Handore, secured 22 first preference votes, while his party colleague Jagtap got 19, but the latter managed to get more second preference votes and eventually won.
The fifth candidate of the BJP -- Lad and Congress nominee Bhai Jagtap secured sufficient number of votes and won in the second round.