The ruling BJP and Shiv Sena on Thursday won two seats each in the Maharashtra legislative Council polls held from the local body constituencies held on Monday.
The Opposition NCP won the remaining one seat, while the Congress lost both the seats it had contested in the polls. The counting of votes for the Osmanabad-Beed-latur seat was deferred by the Election Commission on Wednesday.
The elections to six seats – Osmanabad-Beed-latur, Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Nashik, Parbhani-Hingoli, Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli and Amravati – were held on Monday, as equal number of members - three from NCP, two from BJP members and one Congress — are scheduled to retire from the Upper House of the State legislature on June 21.
BJP’s Praveen Potte-Patil bagged the Amravati legislative Council seat by trouncing the Congress candidate Anil Madhogarhia by a margin of 431 votes. While Potte-Patil polled 448 votes, while Madhogarhia secured 17 votes.
In the poll to the Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli seat, BJP nominee Ramdas Ambatkar defeated his Congress rival Indra Kumar Saraf by 37 votes. Ambatkar polled 528 votes, while Saraf secured 491 votes.
Shiv Sena’s Narendra Darade walked away with the Nashik seat, by defeating his nearest rival NCP rival Shivaji Sahane by a margin of 167 votes. While Darade secured 399 votes, Sahane polled 232 votes.
The Parbhani-Hingoli seat was won by Shiv Sena’s Viplava Bajoria by a margin of 35 votes against Congress rival Suresh Deshmukh. While Bajoria polled 256 votes, Deshmukh secured 221 votes.
Senior NCP leader and former minister Sunil Tatkare’s son Aniket Tatkare won the Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat against Shiv Sena’s Rajiv Sahele by a huge margin of 200 votes. While Jr Tatkare polled 421 votes whereas as against 221 votes secured by Sahele.
The current seat tally in the Maharashtra legislative Council: NCP—23, Congress-- 19, BJP— 18, Shiv Sena—9, PRP—1, lok Bharti—1 and Independents—6. NCP’s is Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar is the chairman, while Congress’ Manikrao Thakre.is deputy chairman. While leader of the House is the BJP’s Chandrakant Patil, leader of Opposition is Dhananjay Munde of the NCP.
Meanwhile, the result in the keenly fought election to the Osmanabad-Beed-latur is awaited. The fight was considered a prestige battle between the Munde cousins — Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde (BJP) and NCP’s leader of Opposition in legislative Council Dhananjay Munde.
There was a stiff fight between BJP’s Suresh Dhas and and independent candidate Ashok Jagdale, who had been supported by both Congress and NCP. The NCP had originally nominated Ramesh Karad as its nominee, but he withdrew from the fray at the last minute apparently at the behest of Pankaja Munde. After the withdrawal of the candidate, the NCP and Congress threw their weight behind independent candidate Jagdale.