Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti alliance has bagged two seats while the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition has secured three out of five seats in the legislative council, for which polling was held last Friday.
In the Nagpur graduates’ constituency, BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale, a trusted lieutenant of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, lost to Congress nominee and sitting MLC Abhijit Wanjari during the counting of second preference votes. The results came as a setback for the Congress, which lost one of its seats – the Pune teachers’ constituency – to the BJP. The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), which was seen struggling till recently, bagged the Aurangabad and Pune graduates’ constituencies, while its MVA ally Congress clinched the Nagpur graduates’ constituency in a closely contested battle. The constituency comprises a prestigious seat for the BJP, and its past MLCs include Nitin Gadkari and Gangadharrao Fadnavis, the chief minister’s father. The party attributed the defeat to alleged misuse of money and power by the ruling alliance. To regain the people’s trust, reset the party’s priorities and bring about organisational reforms, an immediate and rigorous self-examination is necessary.
According to the results declared late in the evening on Wednesday following more than 30 hours of counting, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Pune teachers’ constituency, while Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena won the Amravati teachers’ seat. During the first two rounds of counting of first preference votes for the constituency, Kohale secured a lead with 61,215 votes compared to Wanjari’s 57,052 votes, while independent candidate Nitesh Karale bagged 24,249 votes. In the Pune teachers’ constituency, BJP candidate Kaustubh Gawade emerged as winner with 18,385 votes, followed by independent candidate Sachin Sanap, who was backed by the Shiv Sena and polled 11,983 votes. Congress candidate and sitting MLC Jayant Asgaonkar came third with 8,935 votes.
Sachin Sawant, general secretary, Maharashtra Congress, said that the party also failed to ensure voter registration ahead of the election. It is time to introspect and fix the organisational structure,” NCP national working president Praful Patel said in a post on X.
Earlier this month, the chief minister held a series of meetings with party members and convinced former MLC Anil Sole, who had filed his nomination as an independent candidate, to withdraw from the fray. “Today’s council results are a clear and significant warning.
