Mumbai: In an extended celebration of its first anniversary in office, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) emerged trumps in 4 of the 6 Maharashtra Legislative Council seats in the biennial elections, the results of which were announced here on Friday.
While the MVA has bagged three seats and was leading in one, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party managed a single win and in the remaining one, an independent candidate was leading.
The elections were held for three Graduates Constituencies, two Teachers Constituencies and finally for the Dhule-Nandurbar Local Bodies Constituency, all of which were hotly contested by the two alliances – the MVA versus the NDA.
In the Aurangabad Division Graduates Constituency, NCP’s Satish Chavan won the seat trouncing BJP’s Shirish Boralkar, in Nagpur Division Graduates Constituency, Congress’ Abhijit Wanjari defeated the BJP’s Sandeep Joshi, while Pune Division Graduates Constituency was bagged by NCP’s Arun Lad, beating BJP’s Sangram Deshmukh.
Congress’ Jayant Asgaonkar was in a comfortable position in the Pune Teachers Constituency seat as Independent Dattaraya Sawant trailed behind him, while in the Amravati Division Teachers’ Constituency, Independent Kiran Sarnaik led with a safe margin over the Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Deshpande.
On anticipated lines, in the Dhule-Nandurbar Local Bodies constituency, academician and veteran social worker Amrish Patel – a former Congress legislator – won with a massive margin, trouncing his Congress rival Abhijeet Patil.
The defeat of BJP in the Nagpur seat is considered a major setback as it was the party’s bastion and the seat was once held by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari once before he shifted from state to national politics.
The state’s Upper House comprises 78 members of which 12 are from the Governor’s quota and currently lying vacant.
The latest outcome of the six seats resulted in a sharp verbal war between the MVA-BJP.