The ruling MahaYuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bagged two seats each in the Maharashtra Legislative Council in the polls held in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly polls to be held in October this year.
From the MahaYuti side, the BJP won the Konkan seat, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena secured the Nashik seat.
On its part, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena – which is a part of the Opposition MVA – walked away with both State Legislative Council seats.
The four seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, for which elections were held during the weekend were: Mumbai Graduates’ constituency, Mumbai Teachers’ constituency, Konkan Division Graduates’ constituency, Nashik Division Teachers’ constituency.
The elections had been necessitated by the vacancies caused by the retirement of Vilas Potnis of Sens (UBT) (Mumbai Graduates’ constituency) Niranjan Davkhare of BJP( Konkan Division Graduates’ constituency, Kapil Patil of Lok Bharti (Mumbai Teachers’ constituency) and Kishore Darade, an Independent) (Nashik Division Teachers’ constituency). The four members had retired on June 7.
The winners in the just-held elections are Anil Parab from Mumbai Graduates’ constituency and Prof Jagannath Abhyankar from Mumbai Teachers’ constituency, both from the Shiv Sena (UBT), while BJP’s Niranjan Davkhare
and Shiv Sena’s Kishore Darade emerged victors from the Konkan Division Graduates’ constituency and the Nashik Division Teachers’ constituency Davkhare is the son of former Council Deputy Chairperson late Vasant Davkhare, who was a close aide of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, who now heads NCP (SP).Davkhare won the Konkan Division Graduates’ seat for fourth term after defeating Congress candidate Ramesh Keer.
From the Nashik Division Teachers’ constituency, Darade won the seat defeating Vivek Kolhe of BJP, who was contesting as an independent candidate, Sandeep Gulve of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Mahendra Bhavsar of Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
In Mumbai Graduates’ constituency, Parab defeated Kiran Shelar of the BJP. An advocate, Parab is a close aide of the Thackeray family.
In Mumbai Teachers’ seat, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Prof Abhyankar trounced Subhash More of Shikshak Bharti, while Shivnath Darade of BJP defeated Shivaji Nalawade of NCP.