The MLC lost both Nagpur and Akola-Buldhana-Washim seats by a huge margin in the local authority constituency elections, the results of which were declared on Tuesday.
Earlier, it had lost graduates’ constituency and district council elections and by-elections to a three-party alliance.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won four of the six seats where elections were held on December 10.
Uncontested elections were held for four of them after an informal agreement between rival factions.
This includes two seats of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where BJP’s Rajhans Singh and Shiv SenaK Sunil Shinde won.
Congress and BJP got one seat each in Kolhapur and Nandurbar-Dhule seats.
Although it was an expected victory for Chandrashekhar Bawankule of the saffron party in the Akola-Buldhana-Washim constituency, it marked a coup of sorts by defeating Shiv Sena’s Gopikishan Bajoria, a three-time MLC, by a margin of 109 votes. That the MVA constituents had more than 400 votes out of 822 voters.
As reported by TOI on December 12, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) along with a few independents played a key role in ensuring the victory of Vasant Khandelwal of the BJP.
While Khandelwal got 443 votes, Bajoria got 334 votes out of 808 which were found valid.
This means, the BJP got 157 votes in large numbers from other parties, possibly including 86 of the VBA, 77 independents and some from the constituents of the MVA- Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress.
In Nagpur too, the BJP got 44 votes from three alliance partners and other parties in addition to its tally of 318.
MVA-backed Independent Mangesh Deshmukh got 186 votes.
Former Congress candidate Ravindra Bhoyer, who was imported from the BJP, managed to garner a vote that has everyone speculating that it could be his own.
However, he told TOI on Friday that he followed the party line and voted for Deshmukh.
He refused to vote for himself, thus leaving a huge question mark as to who had voted for him.
Even the oldest party had issued a whip to all its 186 elected and nominated representatives to support Deshmukh.
Leader of Opposition Devendra fadnavis Appreciating the double victory of Bawankule and Khandewal, he said that it was a tough slap on the face of the MVA partners.
“Both these victories are special and are the result of hard work of each and every worker. With these victories from Nagpur and Akola by huge margins, BJP once again proves its strength in these MLC elections,” he tweeted.
Both these victories are special and are the result of hard work of each and every worker. With these victories from Nagpur and Ak… https://t.co/E3ScXbHJNP
— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) 1639459840000
Fadnavis was in the city to greet Bawankule and joined the celebrations along with party workers after the results were declared at the reception lawns on Tuesday morning.
Talking to the media there, he said, “Political arithmetic does not mean that the three parties of the MVA should come together to win. It didn’t always work in politics, it’s really a political chemistry, which is what we have.”
Disappointed Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Nana Patole He accused the BJP of horse-trading to win the election.
“They resorted to undemocratic tactics to win elections, which is their way of working. However, we welcome the mandate.”
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