Mass Cross Voting in Maharashtra MLC Elections, NDA Wins 9 of 11 Seats

Mumbai: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Maharashtra, also known as Mahayuti, on Friday won 9 of 11 seats during the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) elections. The elections, witnessed mass cross voting from the Congress MLAs, in the biennial elections to 11 seats of the Maharashtra MLC. 

There were 12 candidates in the fray for the 11 seats in the upper house of the state legislature where the 274 current members of the legislative assembly form the electoral college were set to vote.

The voting began at the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Mumbai at 9 am and continued till 4 pm. Following the conclusion of the voting, the counting of votes took place at 5 pm, in which the NDA was declared winner. 

Notably, eleven members of the upper house of the state legislature are retiring on July 27 due to which the high-stakes polls were held to fill the vacancies.

Each winning candidate needed a quota of 23 first-preference votes.

The BJP had fielded five candidates, while its Mahayuti allies Shiv Sena and NCP had nominated two each.

The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) fielded one candidate each, while their Maha Vikas Aghadi partner NCP (SP) was backing the nominee of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP).

(With inputs from PTI)