The Opposition Congress on Wednesday retained three of its four seats, while the ruling Shiv Sena recaptured two of its earlier seats in the biennial Maharashtra legislative Council polls held on Sunday.
In the polls, held to fill eight vacancies in the Upper House of the Maharashtra legislature, the Congress retained one seat each in Mumbai, Kolhapur and Dhule-Nandurbar local body constituencies, while it handed over the remaining sitting seat of Nagpur to the ruling BJP on a platter by withdrawing from the fray at the last moment.
The Shiv Sena regained two of the seats — a seat each in Mumbai and Akola — which it had earlier held in the State council. The Opposition NCP and saffron alliance-sponsored Independent candidate won the seats of Ahmednagar and Solapur respectively.
The biennial polls to eight State Council seats were held to fill the vacancies to be created by the impending retirement of as many members on January 1, 2016.
The six outgoing members are: Amrish Patel (Dhule Nandurbar local bodies), Mahadev Mahadik (Kolhapur local bodies), Rajendra Mulak (Nagpur local bodies), Bhai Jagtap (Mumbai municipal corporation), all Congress, State Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam (Mumbai) and Gopikishan Bajoria (Akola—Washim—Buldhana local bodies), both from the Shiv Sena, Deepak Salunke (Solapur local bodies) of the NCP and Arun Jagtap (Ahmednagar local bodies), an Independent supporting the NCP.
In Sunday’s polls, BJP’s Girish Vyas was elected unopposed after the Congress nominee withdrew from the fray at the last moment.
The other winners were: Sena’s Ramdas Kadam of the Sena and Bhai Jagtap of the Congress (from Mumbai), Satej Patil of the Congress (Kolhapur), Amrish Patel of the Congress (Dhule-Nandurbar), Gopikishan Bajoria of the Congress Akola), Arun Jagtap of the NCP (Ahmednagar) and Sena-BJP alliance-supported independent Prashant Paricharak (Solapur).
In Mumbai where the polls were held for two MlC seats from the constituency of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Sena’s Ramdas Kadam and Ashok alias Bhai Jagtap of the Congress romped home, by polling 8,600 votes and 6,400 votes respectively.
Amid speculation that there might be large-scale cross-voting in the polls, Jagtap trounced Independent Prasad lad.
The Sena and BJP together have 119 corporators in the 230 member-BMC. Of the total members, 201 cast their votes during the December 27 polls, while the others abstained.
In Dhule-Nandurbar, sitting Congress MlC Amrishbhai Patel retained
his seat by securing 352 votes, by defeating Dr Shashikant Wani of the BJP.
In Kolhapur, former minister Satej Patil of the Congress won the seat, defeating sitting MlC and party rebel Mahadevrao Mahadik by a margin of 45 votes.
In Ahmednagar, sitting NCP member Arun Jagtap won the Council seat by polling 244 votes. He was locked in a four—cornered contest with Congress’s Jayant Sasane, who filed the nomination as a rebel candidate, and Shiv Sena’s Shashikant Gade and the independent candidate Machindra Supekar. Jagtap polled 244 while Gade secured 177 votes.
In Akola—Washim—Buldhana, there was a straight contest between sitting Sena MlC Gopikisan Bajoriya and NCP’s Ravindra Sapkal. Bajoriya defeated Sapkal by a margin of 278 votes. While Bajoria polled 513 votes, Sapkal secured 239 votes.
In Solapur, Sena-BJP alliance-supported independent candidate Prashant Paricharak won the seat by a margin of 241 votes.
