Council poll held unopposed, BJP gains control of Upper House

After the BJP's dummy candidate Prithviraj Deshmukh withdrew from the MLC poll fray in the elected Members of Assembly constituency, while the remaining 11 candidates were elected unopposed on Monday. It was the last day for withdrawal of nominations. Those declared elected unopposed were Vijay alias Bhai Girkar, Nilay Naik, Ramesh Narayan Patil and Ram Patil Ratolikar (all BJP), Mahadev Jankar, Rashtriya Samaj Party (RSP) leader and minister for Dairy Development from BJP qoata, advocate Anil Parab and Dr Manisha Kayande (both Shiv Sena), Sharad Ranpise and Mirza Wajahat Mirza Athar (both Cong), Abdullah Khan Abdullah Latif Khan alias Babajani Durrani (NCP) and Jayant Patil (Peasants and Workers Party of India-PWPI). With these results, the BJP has gained numerical majority in the Upper House after being in a minority for the past four years, despite being in power. The opposition NCP and Cong, enjoying a majority until now, had stalled important official bills in the Upper House. Amendments to cooperative laws, which would enable decreasing the size of the board of directors and barring them from contesting elections to any cooperative body if found guilty of corruption, was one the most important bills the BJP wanted to pass in both Houses. After the EMLA constituency polls, the latest partywise tally in the Upper House is as follows: BJP 21, Cong 17, NCP 17, Sena 12, Lok Bharti 1, PRP 1, PWP-I 1, Independents 6 and Vacant 2, in a house of 78 members. As a result, the combined tally of the ruling BJPSena alliance in the Upper House after July 27 will be 40, whereas that of the Cong-NCP alliance will be 34. Taking these numbers into account the BJP will stake its claim to the post of chairman, which is currently held by NCPs Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, as the tally of NCP and the Cong has come down. BJP’s Vijay Girkar is the frontrunner for the post of chairman of the Upper House.