How Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti defeated Opposition in Maharashtra council polls

After an impressive performance by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in recent Lok Sabha polls.

The results of Maharashtra biennial legislative council elections have once again turned the tables, as the NDA-led Mahayuti alliance won all nine seats that it contested out of the 11.

All nine candidates of the Mahayuti alliance, including BJP’s Pankaja Munde, won the elections.

Similarly, from the MVA alliance, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Milind Narvekar and Pragya Satav from Congress won the elections, while Jayant Patil from the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), who was backed by Nationalist Congress Party (SP), lost the elections.

Notably, 12 candidates were in the fray for the 11 Legislative Council seats, due to which there was a debate about who would face the heat. Only Jayant Patil got to bear the brunt of this defeat.

DID CONGRESS VOTES SPLIT?
Looking at the statistics of the votes that have been revealed so far, it is estimated that seven votes of the Congress have been split.

Congress has a total of 37 MLAs. Out of them, 25 MLAs gave their first preference votes to Pragya Satav, which proves that 12 first preference votes of Congress were additional.

Milind Narvekar received 22 first-preference votes, whereas the Uddhav Sena only has 15 members. Even if Congress added the remaining seven votes, the question of five votes remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, Jayant Patil got 12 first preference votes, which belonged to the NCP (SP) faction.

HOW MANY VOTES FOR FIRST CHOICE?
Eight candidates won the elections by getting first preference votes. The rest of the candidates had to depend on the second choice of votes.

A minimum of 23 first preference votes was required for victory. Candidates who get equal or more votes are declared winners. The votes received by the candidates are as follows.

BJP
Pankaja Munde – 26 (Winner)

Parinay Fuke – 26 (winner)

Amit Gorkhe – 26 (Winner)

Yogesh Tilekar – 26 (Winner)

Sadabhau Khot – 14 (winner in second round)

NCP (Ajit Pawar)
Shivaji Rao Garje – 24 (Winner)

Rajesh Witekar – 23 (Winner)

Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde Group)

Kripal Tumane – 24 (Winner)

Bhavna Gawli – 24 (Winner)

Congress
Pragya Satav – 25 (Won)

Shiv Sena (UBT)
Milind Narvekar – 22 (winner in second round)

PWP
Jayant Patil – 12 (lost)

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena won in the last phase, despite fielding his close aide Milind Narvekar, and not having the strength of the MLAs.

The five BJP candidates who won the elections include two Other Backward Caste candidates, one Dalit candidate, one Maratha candidate, and, Pankaja Munde, who had recently lost the Lok Sabha elections from Beed.

Notably, Eknath Shinde rectified the mistake of denying the opportunity to two sitting MLAs in Lok Sabha, and had fielded Bhavna Gawli and Krupal Tumhane, who got elected to the Legislative Council.

Although Jayant Patil was supported by Sharad Pawar’s NCP, the other MVA allies didn’t support him, which resulted in his defeat.

Notably, Congress MLAs seem to have given 25 votes to Pragya Satav and around six or seven votes to Narvekar. But even after this, there is the possibility of cross-voting of nearly seven MLAs.

Independent MLAs with Maha Vikas Aghadi and MLAs of smaller parties like Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Samajwadi Party and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are also likely to not have given their first preference votes to Maviya’s candidates.

One thing that emerges from this result is that the MLAs who went with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar are intact with them after the results of the Lok Sabha elections.

The assembly elections are only three months away. Until then, they have the benefit of being in power with the government.

But it also sends a political message that the factions of Shinde and Ajit Pawar are still strong.

Even though Congress got the maximum number of seats in Lok Sabha in Maharashtra, these results also show that they do not have complete control over their MLAs.

If there is cross-voting by the Congress once again, the state leadership will still have to think before the assembly elections.

The BJP and Mahayuti shouldn’t be swayed by this success. Because this election was the calculation of MLAs and public opinion is obtained differently on the ground.