In a major setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Maharashtra ruling alliance (Maha Vikas Aghadi) won four seats in Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) polls, whereas the BJP managed to grab only one seat in Dhule-Nandurbar.
The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance toppled the BJP in hotly contested Nagpur, Pune and Aurangabad graduate constituency seats.
Maha Vikas Aghadi leader Jayant Dinkar Aasgavkar has won from the Pune Teachers Constituency.
Meanwhile, an Independent member has taken the remaining seat.
The finals results were announced on Friday, 4 December.
NCP Wins Two Seats
The National Congress Party (NCP) clinched victory in Pune Division Graduates' constituency and Aurangabad Division Graduates' constituency. Arun Lad won from Pune Division Graduate, and Satish Bhanudasrao Chavan registered victory from Aurangabad Division Graduate.
By winning BJP’s crucial Pune seat with a margin of more than 48,000 votes, Arun Lad defeated BJP candidate Sangram Deshmukh. Traditionally the BJP’s bastion – the party had a stronghold in the last twenty years. The current BJP State president Chandrakant Patil held it twice. Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had campaigned extensively to retain the seat.
Another stronghold that BJP failed to retain is Aurangabad constituency in which NCP’s Satish Bhanudasrao Chavan polled 1,16,638 votes and BJP’s Shirish Boralkar bagged 58,743 votes. Chavan bagged the seat for the third consecutive time.
Congress Topples BJP in Nagpur Graduate Constituency
In a major jolt, the Congress for the first time in 55 years breached the BJP’s bastion Nagpur, which was formerly represented by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, and Devendra Fadnavis’ father Gangadhar Rao Fadnavis. Gadkari, who first won the constituency in 1989, went on to win four more victories from there.
Congress candidate Abhijit Vanjari defeated BJP’s Sandeep Joshi, by nearly 15,000 votes. Vanjari polled an impressive 55,947 votes of a total 1.33 lakh votes.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena failed to win even a single seat; Sena’s lone candidate lost in Amravati.
BJP Grabs One Seat
Even after expansive campaigning, the BJP managed to grab just one seat in the MLC polls.
Dhule-Nandurbar MLC seat was won by sitting MLC Amrish Patel. The bypoll to Dhule-cum-Nandurbar Local Authorities' Constituency was necessitated after sitting MLC Ambrish Patel quit the Congress to join the BJP.
“The BJP’s win in Dhule-Nandurbar is not a victory in the real sense… in contrast, the MVA’s candidates swept the crucial Nagpur, Pune and Aurangabad graduate constituency seats.”The Hindu quoted NCP Chief Sharad Pawar as saying
Maharashtra Has Rejected BJP: NCP Chief
After the MLC results, the NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that it is a hint at Maharashtra’s changing political scenario.
“The results clearly show that Maharashtra’s public has rejected the BJP and has emphatically endorsed the ruling MVA. It is also a testament to the unity of the tripartite MVA government,” Pawar was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
He further stated that Nagpur was under BJP for 55 years. Nitin Gadkari and Fadnavis’ family winning for a number of years from this seat.
“Even the graduate voters in Pune did not support us. But this year, we won big in Pune,” said Pawar.
Meanwhile, Congress' Jayant Dinkar Asgaonkar is leading comfortably in Pune Division Teachers' constituency. Asgaonkar has secured a comfortable lead of 6,000 votes over his nearest rival Dattatray Sawant (Independent).
Amravati Teacher’s seat, with Independent candidate Kiran Sarnaik, is taking a slender lead of a little over 1,000 votes over the MVA candidate Shrikant Deshpande.
The counting for both the seats is underway, reported The Hindu.
(With inputs from NDTV, Hindu)
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