Two leaders each from the ruling NCP and Shiv Sena and four candidates from the opposition BJP were elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Monday night. NCP leaders Eknath Khadse and Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, Shiv Sena candidates Amshya Padvi and Sachin Ahir were declared the winners along with BJP candidates Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre, Shrikant Bhartiya and Praveen Darekar. These eight winners each secured a minimum quota of 26 votes to make it to the upper house of the state legislature.
Legislative Council Speaker and NCP candidate Ramraje Nimbalkar, Leader of Opposition in the Upper House and former BJP minister Pravin Darekar and now NCP candidate Eknath Khadse managed to garner the required number of first preference votes to secure victory.
Shiv Sena candidates Sachin Ahir and Amshya Padvi also registered victories. Two Congress candidates, who are part of the ruling MVA, however, failed to secure the minimum quota of first preference votes.
However, the final counting of votes will be announced when all rounds of counting are over.
The opposition BJP had fielded five candidates- Darekar, Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre, Shrikant Bhartiya and Prasad Lad, of whom the first four have already met the minimum quota required to win the election.
BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar said, “Darekar got 29 first preference votes, while Ram Shinde and Bhartiya got 30 first preference votes. This means, our extra votes from the top three candidates on the list will be transferred to our fifth candidate, Prasad Lad.
“If you count all the votes of first preference to BJP candidates, we have won 133 votes. This means that we have got more votes than we got in the Rajya Sabha elections (held on June 10).
The BJP has 106 MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly, while its candidates have got the remaining votes either as independents or smaller parties or other parties.
Voting for the election of 10 vacant MLC seats took place between 9 am and 4 pm in the Legislature Complex in South Mumbai. Altogether, 11 candidates – five from BJP and two each from Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress – were in the fray.
The counting of votes began at around 7 pm after a delay of two hours.
Earlier, the returning officer had invalidated two votes – one each from ruling ally NCP and opposition BJP – after leaders of the respective parties raised objections, an official said. He said the counting process was postponed for about half an hour due to objections and invalidation of votes.
The counting of votes, originally scheduled to begin at 5 pm, was delayed by over two hours after the Congress objected to the votes cast by BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap. Ailing opposition legislators cast their votes with the help of assistants, which was opposed by the Congress, a key constituent of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Although Election commission India (ECI) overruled the objection of the Congress and went ahead with the counting of votes.
(with PTI inputs)
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