Another boost for MVA as Uddhav’s Sena wins both Mumbai seats in MLC polls. BJP retains Konkan

Mumbai: After scoring big wins in the Lok Sabha elections, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) got another shot in the arm as it clinched two of the four seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council that went to polls last week. This comes at a time when assembly elections are months away.

The MVA, which comprises the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), won in the Mumbai Graduates and Mumbai Teachers constituencies, and is leading in Nashik Division Teachers, while Konkan Division Graduates was retained by the ruling Mahayuti.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) won the Mumbai Teachers seat and retained Mumbai Graduates.

Elections were held for these four seats of the 78-seat state legislative council because the terms of the sitting members end this month.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray’s trusted aide Anil Parab won in the Mumbai Graduates constituency by a whopping margin of 26,000 votes, defeating the BJP’s Kiran Shelar. Meanwhile, the Mumbai Teachers constituency saw a neck-and-neck fight between Shiv Sena UBT candidate J.M. Abhyankar and Shikshak Party’s Subhash More, the former ultimately being declared the winner. Here, all three parties in the ruling Mahayuti — the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP had backed different candidates.

In the Nashik Teachers’ constituency, Sandip Gulve of the Shiv Sena (UBT) was leading against the Shinde Sena’s Kishor Darade.

“This win means that Mumbai is of Shiv Sena. I would like to thank everyone who has ensured my win,” Anil Parab told media persons after his win.

In the Konkan division, the BJP’s Niranjan Davkhare was able to retain his Konkan Graduates seat for the third time by defeating the Congress’s Ramesh Keer. Konkan constituency has districts like Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.

In the legislative council, the Shiv Sena (undivided) has 11 members, NCP (undivided) 9, Congress 8, and BJP 22. The JD (U), Peasants and Workers Party, and Rashtriya Samaj Paksha have one member each, and four are Independents. As many as 21 seats are vacant.

A third of the members of the legislative council are elected by local bodies, which can be a municipality or other local authorities, 1/12th by graduates, 1/12th by teachers, 1/3rd by members of the legislative assembly, while 1/6th of the members are nominated by the governor.

Boost to MVA

Winning these elections was crucial for the MVA to carry forward the momentum built during the Lok Sabha polls, in which it won 30 of Maharashtra’s 48 seats while the Mahayuti could manage only 17 seats.

Ahead of the state polls, winning and retaining Mumbai was key to Uddhav Thackeray retaining his hold over Mumbai.

Previously, the Mumbai Graduates constituency was represented by Shiv Sena UBT’s Vilas Potnis, whose term expired.

On 12 July, another 11 MLC seats will go to polls and the voting will take place among MLAs through a secret ballot. This will be a litmus test for both the ruling and opposition alliances as chances of cross-voting will be higher.

Meanwhile, the BJP has announced five candidates for the upcoming biennial elections, including former state minister Pankaja Munde who lost in the Lok Sabha polls to NCP (Sharad Pawar) candidate Bajrang Sonawane in Beed, as well as former MLAs Yogest Tilekar, Parinay Phuke, Amit Gorkhe, and Sadabhau Khot.

The Congress has re-nominated Pradnya Rajeev Satav.

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)