After the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra, now the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has suffered a major setback in the Legislative Council elections. In the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, 5 candidates of BJP have won. Senior BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis said that BJP has got a total of 134 votes.

On the other hand, the ruling ally NCP (NCP), Shiv Sena have won 2-2 candidates. Only one candidate of Congress got victory. Shrikant Bhartiya, Praveen Darekar, Uma Khapre, Prasad Lad and Ram Shinde have won from BJP’s side. Shiv Sena candidates Sachin Ahir and Amshya Padvi, and NCP’s Eknath Khadse and Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar have won.

It is clear that there has been a rift in the votes of Congress and Shiv Sena. Both the NCP candidates have got a total of 57 votes, while the NCP itself had 51 votes, that is, about 6 votes have been received by the NCP. It is likely to be an independent vote. Shivsena has 55 votes, but their candidates got 52 votes in the election. That is, there has been a breach in Shiv Sena’s 3 votes.

Elections held on 10 seats

There were 11 candidates in the fray in the elections for a total of 10 seats. Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, constituents of the state’s MVA government, had fielded two candidates each, while the BJP had given tickets to five candidates. Voting for the Maharashtra Legislative Council concluded at 5 pm on Monday. All the eligible MLAs exercised their franchise including some ailing MLAs who were brought in wheelchairs to the Legislature premises. Voting started at 9 am.

285 MLAs voted

285 MLAs of the state voted in the MLC elections. Though the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has a total strength of 288 members, but due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke and the imprisonment of two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLAs – Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh – and the court not allowing them to vote. After that the strength of the total members came down to 285. The term of nine members of the Legislative Council is going to end on July 7. At the same time, due to the death of a BJP member earlier this year, elections were held on the 10th seat.

These candidates were fielded

Talking about the candidates, the NCP has fielded Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar and former minister Eknath Khadse. Khadse had left the BJP and joined the Sharad Pawar-led party. On the other hand, Shiv Sena has fielded party functionaries Sachin Ahir and Amshya Padvi, while Congress has fielded Mumbai unit president Bhai Jagtap and former minister Chandrakant Handore. The BJP had again given tickets to outgoing MLCs Lad and Darekar. Apart from these, Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre and Shrikant Bhartiya were also fielded.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.