Pawar says MVA changing state’s political picture after legislative council victories

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi’s win in Nagpur division in the legislative council elections indicates that the political picture in Maharashtra is seeing a gradual change.

Pawar tweeted, “Mahavikas Aghadi has (also) won in Pune division by a big margin. This means the picture in the state is changing. This is reflected in today’s results (loosely translated from Marathi).”

Pawar’s comments came after MVA candidates Arun Lad and Abhishek Wanjari’s wins in Nagpur and Pune division’s graduate constituency seats.

The MVA is on its way to winning four out of six legislative council seats. The MVA has won Aurangabad, Nagpur and two seats from Pune. BJP has only won one seat in Dhule-Nandurbar and in Amravati independent candidate Kiran Sarnaik is expected to support the ruling MVA.

NCP’s Arun Lad’s win in Nagpur came as a surprise for the MVA as it was a BJP stronghold since the party’s inception. Union minister Nitin Gadkari and former CM Devendra Fadnavis’ father late Gangadharrao Fadnavis have contested and won from this seat previously.

Pawar praising the alliance-performance in Nagpur division said, “We have not had much success in the last several decades, mainly in the Nagpur division. Mr. Nitin Gadkari and Shri. Devendra Fadnavis had held this position for many years. But even in Nagpur, the Mahavikas Aghadi has achieved great success.”

MVA had earlier said that the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena will contest every poll together including the local body polls. Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan said that the MVA represents the ‘Maharashtra Express’ and people have more faith in the alliance than it has on BJP.

Chavan said, “BJP has been decimated in 24 districts in the state during the council elections which were fought directly. This is the ‘Maharashtra Express’ of MVA.”

Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said that the BJP may have underestimated the strength of three parties it was contesting polls against.

This is the list of winners of the legislative council elections -

Pune graduate constituency - Arun Lad (NCP)

Nagpur graduate constituency - Abhijit Wanjari (Congress)

Aurangabad - Satish Chavan (NCP)

Dhule-Nandurbar - Amrish Patel (BJP)

In Amravati teacher’s constituency, independent candidate Kiran Sarnaik and in Pune teacher’s constituency, Jayant Asgaonkar (Congress) are leading by huge margins.