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Three BJP leaders, two from the NCP led by Ajit Pawar, and one from Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction emerged victorious in their elections.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, which includes Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the NCP of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar alongside the BJP, rebounded from a disappointing general election outcome by securing a significant victory in the MLC polls.
The BJP put forward five candidates, among them Pankaja Munde, the daughter of the late senior leader Gopinath Munde. All five emerged victorious. The Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP each fielded two candidates, and all four won.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, consisting of the Congress and factions of the Sena and NCP led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar , fielded three candidates.
The MLC election is seen as a preliminary round for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election later this year.
Speaking to reporters after the results, Ajit Pawar expressed his gratitude, saying, “Five MLAs supported us, and I thank them. Elections often come with allegations, but I don’t dwell on them…” He further stated, “Mahayuti should achieve similar success in the Vidhan Sabha as well…”
Source: theweek.in
Voting took place on the morning of July 12 for a total of 11 seats.
What were the preparations before this election?
Source: The Print
Resort politics reemerged in Maharashtra, along with the potential for cross-voting and horse trading, as the state prepared to hold elections for 11 Legislative Council seats on Friday. Buoyed by its unexpectedly strong performance in the Lok Sabha polls, where it won 30 of the state’s 48 seats, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi fielded three candidates, one more than their numbers could secure, making the election necessary.
The Maharashtra Assembly, with 288 seats, currently holds 274 members, requiring each MLC candidate to secure 23 first-preference votes for election. The ruling Mahayuti, part of the larger NDA alliance and comprising the BJP, the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, and the Ajit Pawar wing of the NCP, fielded nine candidates and garnered support from 201 MLAs, including Independents and smaller parties.
The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress, organized a dinner meeting for his party MLAs at a hotel in Mumbai on Thursday night. The Congress had issued a whip to its MLAs, instructing them to vote for the candidates of the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Uddhav Thackeray hosted a dinner interaction with his MLAs at a five-star hotel in central Mumbai on Wednesday night. According to a party leader, all 11 MLAs who attended the meeting remained at the hotel, where the remaining four legislators joined them on Thursday.
Ajit Pawar’s NCP had relocated its MLAs to a five-star hotel near the airport in suburban Mumbai, while MLAs from Shiv Sena initially gathered at the Vidhan Bhavan complex on Wednesday morning for a meeting before moving to a five-star hotel in Bandra.
BJP MLAs were also accommodated at a luxury hotel, but Sharad Pawar’s NCP did not opt for such arrangements.
Jayant Patil, the Maharashtra president of the NCP, stated, “We have full faith in our MLAs and do not feel the need to house them in five-star hotels.”
Outline of how parties positioned their candidates for the elections:
Source: Mid-Day
There were 12 candidates vying for the 11 seats in the MLC elections. The results were somewhat expected, given that MLCs are elected indirectly by Assembly lawmakers, with each party needing 23 MLAs to secure one legislative council seat.
The BJP, with 103 MLAs, fielded five candidates, ensuring four seats and falling 12 votes short for the fifth. The Shinde Sena, with 37 MLAs, needed nine more votes, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP, with 39 MLAs, was seven votes shy. Thus, the Mahayuti alliance was 28 votes short of winning all nine seats it contested.
On the other side, the Congress, with 37 MLAs, nominated only one candidate, leaving 14 surplus votes to be distributed among its MVA partners. Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction supported Jayant Patil, but with 13 MLAs, they were 10 votes short.
Despite needing eight more votes, Thackeray’s Sena fielded one candidate. Overall, the MVA fell four votes short of potentially winning all three seats, assuming the Congress’s extra votes were cast for its allies.
The decisive factor was the votes from outside sources—two MLAs each from Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, one CPIM leader, and an independent.
Even with these six additional votes, neither the Mahayuti nor the MVA could have secured all the seats they contested, suggesting the possibility of cross-voting in the election.
Ahead of voting by the legislators, there was concern about horse-trading and poaching, prompting a round of resort politics that has become a standard feature of the Indian electoral landscape.
Link to the X account of the Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde where he posted about their win:
https://twitter.com/mieknathshinde/status/1811806631199670422?t=qxYGYlIFPpgJMmCoGO9kuQ&s=08
