The BJP received a drubbing in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections on December 4, winning just one of the six seats that went to polls, and losing in its strongholds of Nagpur and Pune. The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, won four seats. While NCP and Congress each won two seats, one seat went to an Independent candidate.
The polls for six seats – three graduates’ constituencies (Nagpur, Pune and Aurangabad), two teachers’ constituencies (Pune and Amravati) and one local body (Dhule-Nandurbar) had taken place on December 1. Votes were counted on December 3.
The electoral outcome in Nagpur, where BJP’s former mayor Sandip Joshi was defeated by Congress’ Abhijit Wanjari, came as a shock to the party. The Congress wrested the seat from the BJP after 55 years. Wanjari polled 61,701 votes while Joshi got 42,791 votes.
Another prestigious seat was the Pune graduates’ constituency, which went to the NCP. NCP’s Arun Lad bagged 12,2145 votes against the BJP candidate, Sangram Deshmukh, who got 73,321 votes. The seat had been vacated by BJP state unit president Chandrakant Patil.
The third graduates’ constituency, Aurangabad, saw NCP’s sitting member Satish Chavan trouncing BJP’s Shirish Boralkar.
In Amravati teachers’ constituency, BJP’s Dr Nitin Dhande lost to Independent candidate Kiran Sarnaik. The Sena, which contested this lone seat, failed to get its candidate Shrikant Deshpande elected.
The Pune teachers’ constituency was bagged by Congress’ Jayant Asgaonkar. Here, the BJP had supported Independent candidate Jitendra Pawar, who had to bite the dust.
The BJP sought solace in the lone local body constituency of Dhule-Nandurbar. Former Congress leader Amarish Patel, who had joined BJP last year ahead of the 2019 Assembly polls, won from his home turf.
Congress and NCP leaders said that the results were a verdict against BJP’s divisive politics. “The results show that the political situation in Maharashtra has changed,” Sharad Pawar said.
Asked about BJP’s loss in Pune and Nagpur divisions’ graduates’ constituency, Dr Neelam Gorhe, Sena legislator and party spokesperson said, “The results show that the urban voter, which traditionally votes for BJP, has moved to MVA.”
Of the 66 elected members in the Council, 30 are elected by members of the Legislative Assembly; 22 are elected by local bodies from 21 divisions; and seven members each are elected from among graduates and teachers of the seven revenue divisions of the state – Mumbai, Amravati, Nashik, Aurangabad, Konkan, Nagpur and Pune.
This was the first election in which the Sena, NCP, and Congress forged a pre-poll alliance with the aim of consolidating their strength in the state. The three parties after Friday’s showing, would want to have a pre-poll alliance for all elections in the state. Maharashtra is scheduled to have local body polls early next
year.
“I will have discussions with the leaders of the three alliance partners in order to implement the same pre-poll strategy for all forthcoming polls,” Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said.