The ruling Mahayuti alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won all 11 seats of the state Legislative Council on Friday. While the Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) has won two seats. The BJP won five seats, while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 2-2 seats. Only 2 out of 3 candidates of the India Alliance could win. Apart from this, according to media reports, 7 to 8 Congress MLAs are said to have cross voted.
BJP won five seats
When the votes were counted after voting on 11 seats, BJP got 5 seats, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and NCP Ajit Pawar group got 2 seats each. While Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) and Congress won 1 seat each from India Block. Jayant Patil, who was contesting with the support of Sharad Pawar, lost the election. To win the Legislative Council election, a candidate needs the votes of 23 MLAs. Out of which BJP has 103, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) has 38, NCP (Ajit faction) has 42, Congress has 37, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 15 and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) has 10 MLAs.
MV's
Lost one seat out of 11 seats, the NDA-led Mahayuti alliance contested 9 seats and won all. At the same time, MVA lost one seat out of 3 seats. All 9 candidates of Mahayuti, including BJP's Pankaja Munde, have won. Pragya Satav from Congress has also won. On the other hand, UBT Sena managed to gain lead and Sharad Pawar-backed candidates lost.
Jayant Patil lost
In the second phase, the fight for the last seat was between Milind Narvekar of the Uddhav Thackeray faction and Jayant Patil of the People's Walkers and Peasants Party (PWP) supported by the Sharad Pawar faction. Milind Narvekar won this match by defeating Jayant Patil. There were 12 candidates in the fray for these 11 Legislative Council seats.
What is vote counting?
The question is whether the Congress votes got divided? Looking at the figures of votes that have come out so far, it is being estimated that about seven votes of Congress have got divided. Now if we look at the vote count, it is known that Congress has a total of 37 MLAs. Out of which 25 MLAs voted for Pragya Satav as their first choice. That means Congress has 12 first preference votes left. At the same time, Milind Narvekar got 22 first preference votes. In which Thackeray group has 15 votes. If the remaining seven votes of Congress are also added, then five votes get mixed up. Jayant Patil got 12 first preference votes. These 12 votes belong to Sharad Pawar group.
How many votes for first choice?
Eight candidates have won the election by getting first preference votes. The remaining candidates will have to depend on second preference. A minimum of 23 first preference votes were required to win. Candidates who get that many or more votes are declared winners.
How many votes did the BJP candidate get?
Pankaja Munde got 26 votes and won the election
Parinay Fook got 26 votes and won the election.
Amit Gorakh got 26 votes and won the election.
Yogesh Tilekar got 26 votes and won the election,
Sadabhau Khot got 14 votes, won (winner in second round)
of NCP(Ajit Pawar group)
Kripal Tuma got 24 votes and won
Bhavana Gawli got 24 votes and won the election
of the Congress
Pragya Satav got 25 votes and won the election
Shivsena(UBT Group)
Milind Narvekar got 25 votes and won the election
PWP(Sharad faction support) Situation
Jayant Patil got 12 votes and lost the election
What does this election say?
1. In the last phase, his own PA fielded Milind Narvedkar and despite not having sufficient number of MLAs, Uddhav Thackeray won.
2. Five BJP candidates won. In which BJP gave another chance to Pankaja Munde. Along with this, 3 OBC, one Dalit and one Maratha face were elected in the Legislative Council.
3. Eknath Shinde corrected the mistake of not giving a chance to two sitting MLAs in the Lok Sabha. Shiv Sena's disgruntled former MP Bhavana Gawli and Kripal Tumhane were given a chance and elected to the Legislative Council.
4. Jayant Patil had the support of the Sharad Pawar faction but the allies in the Maha Vikas Aghadi did not support him.
5. 7 Congress MLAs broke away. Congress MLAs gave 25 votes to Pragya Satav and 6-7 votes to Narvekar. But despite this, there is a suspicion that about seven MLAs have cross-voted.
6. One thing that has come out from the results is that the MLAs who had gone with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar are still with them even after the Lok Sabha election results. The assembly elections are just three months away. Till then, it is beneficial to remain in power with the government. But this sends the message that the Shinde and Ajit Pawar faction is still strong.
Even though Congress won more seats in Maharashtra Lok Sabha, these results show that it does not have control over its MLAs. If cross voting happens once again from the Congress side, then it can be called a warning bell for the regional leadership before the assembly elections.