@the_news_21
Mumbai: Barely within 10 days of pulling off a stunning victory in the Rajya Sabha elections, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday delivered yet another bloody nose to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) by managing to get all its 5 candidates elected in the elections to 10 vacancies in the Elected by MLAs constituency in the Legislative Council. If the Rajya Sabha elections saw the Shiv Sena taste defeat, in this election it was the Congress which tasted the defeat amidst cross-voting from the Sena and the Congress camps.
In the final analysis, the BJP managed to get all its 5 candidates elected, the Shiv Sena managed to get its 2 candidates elected, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got its 2 candidates elected, while the Congress could manage to get only one of its two candidates elected.
There were 11 candidates in the poll fray for 10 EMLA constituency vacancies. The BJP had fielded 5 candidates, the NCP 2, Sena 2 and the Congress 2.
The official quota of first preference votes needed for victory was 25.71, which effectively meant that the winning candidate had to get 26 first preference votes. During the actual counting of votes two more votes were declared invalid by the counting staff of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The BJP which had managed to get 123 votes, 10 more votes in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, this time improved its tally by bagging 133 first preference votes in the MLC elections. This means that the BJP managed to split at least 20 votes of the ruling MVA government of Sena, NCP and the Congress.
At least 3 votes each from the ruling Sena and the Congress were split by the opposition BJP and the ruling NCP.
Whereas the NCP whose official effective strength was reduced to 51, both its candidates managed to poll 57 votes, indicating a clear swing of 6 more votes. The NCP appears to have bolstered the defences of its two candidates by ensuring surplus votes from its allies and smaller parties.
The 5 BJP candidates – Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council, Pravin Darekar (29), Prof Ram Shinde (30), Uma Khapre (27), Shrikant Bharatiya (30) and Prasad Lad (17) together polled 133 first preference votes. Which meant that the BJP had managed to split 10 more votes from the recent Rajya Sabha elections.
Both the NCP candidates – Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar got 28 votes, whereas Eknath Khadse got 29 votes. The effective strength of the NCP in the Legislative Assembly was reduced to 51 as two of its MLAs – Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik who are in jail were denied permission by the Bombay High Court to cast their vote in this election also.
However, both the NCP candidates managed together to poll 57 votes, 6 more votes than their numerical strength in the lower house. Indicating that they managed to get votes from the Independents and smaller political parties in the lower house.
Although the Shiv Sena managed to get both its candidates – Sachin Ahir (26 votes) and Amsha Padvi (26 votes) elected, the Sena fell 3 votes short from its effective strength of 55 MLAs in the lower house. The effective strength of the Sena in the Legislative Assembly is now reduced to 55 with the death of one of its sitting MLA Ramesh Latke. However, in the MLC elections the both the Sena candidates got 52 votes, indicating a split of 3 votes.
In the second round of counting of preferential votes, it was a three-way contest between BJPs Prasad Lad and both the Congress candidates – Chandrakant Handore and Ashok @ Bhai Jagtap.
While Prasad Lad who had 17 first preference votes in the first round, coasted to victory in the second round securing 28 votes.
In a tragic irony of sorts, both the Congress candidates squared-off with each other for the last 10th seat. Handore who was hand-picked by AICC observer for Maharashtra Mallikarjun Kharge got only 22 first preference votes. Bhai Jagtap managed to eventually sneak through to victory, completing the required quota of 26 votes needed to win the election.
What is embarrassing for the Congress was that it had 44 MLAs in the lower house, while both its candidates Handore and Jagtap polled 22 and 19 first preference votes, totalling 41 votes. Which meant 3 votes of the Congress got split.
In the end the MVAs effective strength in the Legislative Assembly which was 169 has now come down to 151. Whereas, the BJP and its allies who had an effective strength of 113 MLAs have seen its tally swell to 133, indicating a clear split of 20 MLAs from the ruling MVA camp.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Balasaheb Thorat admitted that the Congress will have to do introspection as to why it could not manage to keep its flock of 44 MLAs together. While, BJPs Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis remarked the second win in successive elections was indicative of the growing resentment within the MLAs of the ruling MVA against their own government.
