Big blow to Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance Bharatiya Janata Party ,BJP) won the state legislative council elections on Monday by defeating all its five candidates – Praveen Darekar, Ram Shinde, Shrikant Bhartiya, Uma Khapre and Prasad Lad. The ruling coalition, on the other hand, was left red-faced as the Dalit face of the Congress, Chandrakant Handor, lost after cross-voting by at least three MLAs each. Shiv Sena And the Congress, and even more so from its smaller coalition partners. This is the second consecutive defeat for the ruling MVA in a matter of two weeks as the BJP managed to thrash the MVA in the Rajya Sabha elections on June 10.
The BJP, which got 106 votes in the assembly, got 133 votes. An additional 27 votes from other parties and independents paved the way for their victory against the MVA, which was more certain to gain numbers.
11 candidates were in the fray in the elections for the 10 seats of the council. BJP had fielded five candidates, Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena two each.
Within the MVA, two NCP candidates won comfortably. Eknath Khadse (29 votes) and Ramraje Nimbalkar (27 votes) emerged victorious. NCP with 51 MLAs got 56 votes.
While two Shiv Sena candidates – Amashya Padvi and Sachin Ahir – won the election with the required quota of 26 votes each, the party was upset as they saw at least three of its MLAs indulge in cross-voting. Against its total of 55 votes, Shiv Sena managed to garner only 52 votes, leaving three votes unaccounted for.
The situation in the Congress was worse as none of its two candidates – Bhai Jagtap and Chandrakant Handore – could make it to the first round despite having 44 MLAs. His two candidates received 19 and 22 votes in the first round, respectively, as against 44 votes – a total of 41 votes.
Although Jatap eventually managed to secure the required quota during the counting of votes in successive rounds, Handore got only 22 votes.
Speaking to the media, opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis, who had planned the BJP’s strategy, said, “The election result has exposed the built-in conflict within the MVA. Cross voting within Shiv Sena and Congress has shown that their members no longer trust the party and the government.
“The BJP had only 106 votes but it got 133 votes. We got 27 extra votes,” he insisted, “In the Rajya Sabha elections, against 106 votes, we got 123 votes. Now our number has increased to 133 votes.”
Shortly after the election results, Shiv Sena’s celebrations were clouded as their political managers became aware of the cross-voting of their members. Many leaders came to meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at his residence.
However, Shiv Sena leader Sachin Ahir said, “Despite efforts to defeat me, the BJP could not succeed. Both the Shiv Sena candidates won.”
Expressing happiness over the NCP’s victory, state party president Jayant Patil said, “We have to find out what went wrong within the MVA that led to the defeat of Congress candidate Chandrakant Handore.”
The election results show that within a fortnight, the opposition BJP has stumped the Maha Vikas Aghadi twice. Earlier, on June 10, BJP had secured three of its candidates in the Rajya Sabha as Shiv Sena’s second candidate Sanjay Pawar lost to BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik. The three major MVA partners could win only one seat each.
Two consecutive victories for the state BJP reflects their ability to garner support from smaller parties and independents as well as a strategic vote transfer strategy.
Four BJP candidates – Darekar (29 votes), Shrikant Bhartiya (30 votes), Ram Shinde (30 votes), Uma Khapre (27 votes) – emerged with impressive performances in the first round. The fifth candidate, Prasad Lad, got 17 votes in the first round. In the second round, the surplus 12 votes went to Lad’s quota, taking his tally to 29.
Earlier, amid high drama, the counting of votes for the Legislative Council elections was postponed by two hours. The Congress objected to two ailing BJP members – Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak – taking the help of their assistants during the voting. Both Jagtap and Tilak, who are facing serious health issues, were brought by road ambulance from Pune.
Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan said, “Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak signed the register of the Election Commission. If they could sign a register, they didn’t need an assistant to help them fill out the ballot. The party has given a written complaint to the Returning Officer.
Consequently, the matter was referred to the Election Commission office, which dismissed the complaint.
Against the total strength of 288 members in the state assembly, 285 members voted in the council elections. Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke passed away last month. Two members of NCP – Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik And former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh – who is in judicial custody and facing trial in separate money laundering cases – was not allowed to vote.