Shiv Sena wins two seats in Maharashtra legislative council polls, despite tussle with BJP

Major setback for the Congress, which did not win a single seat.

Results for five state legislative council seats were declared on Thursday. Shiv Sena won two seats, despite its strained relations with alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP won two seats in Vidarbha and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained the Konkan seat. The Congress did not register any wins.

HT File Photo

The polls are a major boost for the Shiv Sena, which has improved its tally from 9 to 11 in the 78-member House.

Counting for the five council seats was held in the respective districts from which the legislators were being elected on Thursday morning.

The BJP and the NCP have locked horns in this constituency, making it a prestige battle, with the Munde cousins — women and child welfare minister Pankaja Munde and leader of Opposition in Upper House Dhananjay Munde — gunning for their respective candidates. The Munde cousins are political rivals in the Marathwada region.

The biennial elections for the six seats of the Upper House were held on Monday for which members of local bodies in 13 districts are casting votes.

Judging from the developments in the Palghar Lok Sabha bypolls, scheduled for May 28, relations between the Shiv Sena and BJP seem strained. For the first time, the Sena has fielded a candidate for a seat held by its ally, weakening the prospects of BJP’s Rajendra Gavit. The Sena candidate is Shrinivas Wanga, son of the late MP Chintaman Wanga, who had defected from the BJP.

Reacting to this decision, BJP corporators in Nashik reportedly voted for the NCP candidate, Shivaji Sahane, while in the Konkan (Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg) constituency, they supported the NCP’s Aniket Tatkare Though the Sena won the Nashik seat, it lost the Konkan seat by a large margin. However, the Sena wrested the Parbhani-Hingoli seat from the Congress.

Pravin Pote-Patil, BJP leader and minister of state for public works, won from the Amravati local bodies, while his colleague Ramdas Ambatkar defeated the Congress’ Indrakumar Saraf from Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli constituency.

The state council polls have been a major setback for the Congress because the part has not won a single seat. “It’s an unexpected defeat for us. We were expecting to win at least the Parbhani-Hingoli seat owing to our majority in the local bodies,” said a state Congress leader, requesting anonymity.