Maharashtra MLC elections: All 5 BJP candidates secure victory, MVA faces another setback

The Bharatiya Janata Party swept the Legislative Council elections in Maharashtra, winning 5 of the 10 seats. From the Maha Vikas Aghadi partners, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena won two seats each. Congress could only win one seat in the elections that took place on Monday. 

A total of 11 candidates were in the fray for the 10 seats. The BJP had fielded five candidates — Pravin Darekar, Shrikant Bharatiya, Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre and Prasad Lad, all of whom won. Sachin Ahir and Aamsha Padvi from Sena, Eknath Khadse and Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar from the NCP were also among the winners. 

Maharashtra MLC elections 

Voting for the elections for 10 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council was completed at 4 p.m., with all 285 eligible MLAs casting their vote. The effective strength of the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is reduced to 285 following the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke, while two NCP MLAs - Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh - are currently in jail and have not been allowed to vote by a court.

The BJP has 106 MLAs, Shiv Sena-55, Congress-44 and NCP-52. Smaller parties and Independents account for 25 MLAs in the House. BJP had put up five candidates, despite having numbers to elect only four candidates. The Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance and its allies like the Independents had been approached to get BJP's fifth candidate elected. BJP needed 22 votes from outside the party for its fifth candidate. As per sources, BJP got 26 more votes from outside, 130 votes in total in the first preference, suggesting that the Sena, NCP & Congress MLAs cross-voted, just like in the Rajya Sabha elections.