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Maharashtra’s ruling tie-up bags 4 of 6 legislative council seats
Maharashtra’s ruling coalition of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress on Friday won four of the six seats of state’s legislative council that went to the polls on December 1.
Maharashtra’s ruling coalition of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress on Friday won four of the six seats of state’s legislative council that went to the polls on December 1.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, suffered a setback losing in party strongholds of Nagpur and Pune.
The biennial elections to the upper house, held on December 1, were being viewed as a litmus test for the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which came to power last year.
The terms of five sitting members had ended in July this year but the election was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NCP’s Satish Chavan defeated the BJP’s Shirish Boralkar to win the Aurangabad Division Graduates’ constituency.
In Nagpur Division Graduates’ seat, the Congress’s Abhijit Wanjari trounced the BJP’s Sandeep Joshi. In the past, this seat had been held by BJP stalwart and Union minister Nitin Gadkari.
In Pune Division Graduates’ seat, the NCP’s Arun Lad defeated Sangram Deshmukh of the BJP.
In Pune Division Teachers’ constituency, Jayant Asgaonkar of the Congress trounced sitting MLC and Independent Dattatraya Sawant.
In Amravati Division Teachers’ constituency, Kiran Sarnaik (Independent) defeated sitting MLC and independent Shrikant Deshpande who contested on the Shiv Sena ticket.
Reacting to the results, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said, “The results are a clear reflection of the MVA’s work in the last one year.”
Pawar said the result of the byelection to Dhule- Nandurbar seat, where the BJP’s Amrish Patel won, was expected. “He resigned (from the Congress) and contested. He had support from one big section which continued to support him in the election, so it cannot be a real victory,” Pawar said.
But the results of the remaining constituencies where the MVA won was a reflection of the MVA government’s performance, he said.
Former chief minister and leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP failed to gauge the combined strength of the MVA.
Talking to reporters here, Fadnavis said, “We could not judge the combined strength of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in these polls. Now we know how big fight they can put up together. We will prepare better for the next polls. We could only win one seat out of the six. We will analyse the results and plan for the next challenge. We will also discuss the issue of selection of candidates, though prima facie I think they were suitable ones.”
Home minister Anil Deshmukh thanked voters, saying they “bent the lofty necks” of rival parties. He also said that the opposition party should now support the government for the state’s development.
“If it cannot do so, it should at least stop anti- Maharashtra activities #BJP,” the minister said.
Political analysts said the results presented a turning point in the state’s politics. “I think voters got an alternative to the hard core Hindutva of BJP and also found an alternative to Congress’s secularism after the formation of MVA. If the three ruling parties read the political meaning out of the results, this could serve as long lasting effect which could dent BJP significantly in the state,” said Prakash Pawar, a Kohlapur-based political analyst.
