Ruling Mahayuti alliance sweeps Maharashtra Legislative Council election
Mumbai, July 12
The ruling Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra on Friday won all the nine seats it contested in the biennial elections to 11 seats for the State Legislative Council.
In the results announced in the evening for the polls conducted earlier in the day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won five seats, while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bagged two each.
From the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Milind Narvekar, close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and Congress candidate Pradnya Satav won the elections.
Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP) candidate Jayant Patil, who was supported by Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), lost the polls.
The election was necessitated as 11 members of the Legislative Council (MLCs) are completing their six-year term on July 27.
The 288-member Legislative Assembly was the electoral college for the polls and its current strength is 274.
Each winning candidate required a quota of 23 first-preference votes.
The BJP is the largest party in the Assembly with 103 members, followed by the Shiv Sena (38), NCP (42), Congress (37), Shiv Sena (UBT) 15 and NCP (SP) 10.
The BJP had fielded five candidates — former Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde, Yogesh Tilekar, Parinay Phuke, Amit Gorkhe and Sadabhau Khot, and its ally Shiv Sena two — former Lok Sabha MPs Krupal Tumane and Bhavana Gawali. NCP had given tickets to Shivajirao Garje and Rajesh Vitekar.
The Congress had nominated Satav for another term, while Sena (UBT) had fielded Narvekar.
The third MVA constituent, NCP (SP), did not field its nominee and instead extended support to PWP’s Jayant Patil.
