Congress shines in council elections

The Congress pulled in strong numbers in the biannual elections of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, winning three of the seven seats for which elections were held on December 18, reports HT Correspondent.

The Congress pulled in strong numbers in the biannual elections of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, winning three of the seven seats for which elections were held on December 18.

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For Nitin Gadkari, named last week as the BJP’s national president, it was an inauspicious start to his new job — two of his close confidantes, Madhu Chavan and Ashok Mankar, lost the elections, which were held within local self-government bodies for seven seats, including two from Mumbai and one each from Solapur, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Nagpur and Akola-Washim-Buldhana.

The Congress won from Nagpur, Mumbai and Kolhapur, aside from the Dhule-Nandurbar seat, which the Congress’s Amrish Patel won unopposed.

Against the Congress three wins, the Shiv Sena won two, and the Nationalist Congress Party and an Independent bagged one seat each. These polls were held because the tenure of the seats’ last occupants expired on January 1.

The Sena managed to get Ramdas Kadam, former leader of the Opposition, elected from Mumbai. Madhu Chavan, fielded by the BJP from Mumbai, lost. The elections in Mumbai also stretched the already strained relationship between the Sena and the BJP.

“I will complain to Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray on the tactics used by our political allies, the BJP, in creating obstacles to my victory,” Kadam told reporters. In Nagpur, Congress candidate Rajendra Mulak defeated sitting BJP MLC Ashok Mankar by four votes. In Ahmednagar, Independent Arun Jagtap defeated the Congress’s Jayant Sasane.

In Buldhana, the Sena’s Gopikishan Bajoria defeated NCP’s Radheshyam Chandak.