Maharashtra MLC Election: BJP Wins 5 Seats, NCP And Sena Get 2 Each, Congress Bags 1

Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government constituents Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress had fielded two candidates each, while the BJP gave tickets to five candidates.

An electoral official marks the finger of a voter with indelible ink before casting ballot at a polling station (Source: AFP)

New Delhi: Two leaders each from the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), one from the Congress and five candidates of the BJP were declared winners in the Maharashtra Legislative Council election that was held on Monday. BJP's Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre, Shrikant Bhartiya, Prasad Lad and Pravin Darekar won along with NCP leaders Eknath Khadse and Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar. Amshya Padvi and Sachin Ahir of Shiv Sena were also named winners. Bhai Jagtap of the Congress won in the second round of counting, PTI reported.

However, the counting was delayed by over two hours after the Congress raised objection to the votes cast by BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap. The Congress had objected to the two ailing legislators casting their votes with the help of assistants. The Election Commission, however, brushed off the party's objections.

Eleven candidates were in the race for 10 seats in the Legislative Council. Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government constituents Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress had fielded two candidates each, while the BJP gave tickets to five candidates.

The term of nine members of the Legislative Council is set to end on July 7. At the same time, due to the death of a BJP member earlier this year, elections were held for the 10th seat.

Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday expressed confidence that there will be no split in the MVA. He has ruled out the possibility of cross-voting in MLC elections. "The defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls (held on June 10 for six seats in Maharashtra) was unfortunate. The Shiv Sena votes were not split in the RS polls. We have an idea of what went wrong. Hence, there is no question of cross-voting tomorrow," he said.

The effective strength of the 288-member Maharashtra Sadan has come down to 285. Three MLAs did not vote as one of the Shiv Sena MLAs, Ramesh Latke, died recently. While two NCP MLAs Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are currently in jail and were denied permission by the Bombay High Court to vote for the MLC elections.