Bharatiya Janata Party Saffron party has lost five out of the six seats it contested in the crucial polls.
Elections for the Maharashtra Legislative Council was held on 1 December 2020. Aurangabad, Pune and Nagpur- Graduate constituencies, Pune and Amravati- Teachers constituencies and Dhule-Nandurbar – local body constituency had gone to the polls.
According to the local media reports, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has won 4 out of 6 Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies of the Maharashtra Legislative Council.
The BJP has only managed to grab the Dhule-Nandurbar seat. While Independent candidate from Washim, Kiran Saranaik registered victory on Amravati Teachers’ seat.
Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates Arun Lad won the Pune Graduate constituency while Satish Chavan and Abhijit Wanjarri won the Aurangabad and Nagpur Graduate seats, respectively.
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Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari won the Nagpur division graduates’ constituency election by defeating BJP’s Sandip Joshi by a margin of 18,910 votes. This is perceived to be a big setback to the BJP, as it had held the seat for the last 58 years.
Lad defeated National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Sangram Deshmukh by over 48,800 votes in the Pune graduate constituency.
The seat was held by BJP state president Chandrakant Patil for two consecutive terms.
Chavan defeated Shirish Boralkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of 57,895 votes.
On the other hand, BJP’s Amrish Patel won the Dhule-Nandurbar seat. Patel was earlier with the Congress but quit and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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While talking to reporters, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said the result demonstrated the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s performance in the last one year.
A provisional voter turnout of 63.89 per cent was registered in the elections held for five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Tuesday.
The polls were seen as a prestige battle between Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and the opposition BJP.
The BJP is not happy with its performance and said the Legislative Council polls has not been as expected. “We were expecting more seats but won only one. We miscalculated the combined power of the three parties Congress Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress),” former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said while speaking to the media.