The results of the Maharashtra biennial legislative council elections have once again turned the tables, with the National Democratic Alliance-led Mahayuti alliance winning all nine of the 11 seats it contested following the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance’s exceptional performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. The Mahayuti alliance’s nine candidates, including Pankaja Munde of the Bharatiya Janata Party, triumphed in the election.
Jayant Patil of the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP) who was supported by the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) lost the election while Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Milind Narvekar and Congresswoman Pragya Satav won. There was a dispute about who would take the heat among the twelve candidates vying for the eleven Legislative Council seats. The defeat was borne primarily by Jayant Patil. He fled the Legislature’s grounds well in advance of the results being announced and unveiled, “Congress MLAs indulged in cross-voting.”
“We will check to see which MLAs cross-voted and will take action against them. We thought four MLAs would cross-vote, but it is more than four. We will find out the exact number in a couple of days,” stated Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Nana Patole informed that he has submitted a report to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on the matter and declared, “All traitors will be shown the door.” NCP (SP) spokesperson Vidya Chavan claimed, “BJP has resorted to its old tactics of using money to influence elections and it has succeeded again.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar conveyed, “We had 40 MLAs of our own besides the support from two independent candidates. However, we received five additional votes. I want to thank those who gave additional votes to our candidates.” The five votes were reportedly of Congress MLAs as some of them had attended NCP meetings regularly. Sunil Tatkare, state president of NCP said, “I am very happy. This win is bigger than my Lok Sabha victory. A higher power supported us in this election. This is a trailer for the State Assembly election. Our MLAs have shown our opponents their place. I am proud of my MLAs.”
According to media reports, among all the votes that have been disclosed till now, seven votes of the Congress were reportedly split. There are 37 MLAs in the Congress and Pragya Satav received the first preference votes of 25 MLAs, indicating that the 12 first preference votes from the party were additional. There are 22 first-preference votes for Milind Narvekar who won in the second round, whereas the Shiv Sena (UBT) has only 15 members. Jayant Patil, on the other hand, received 12 first-preference votes from Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction.
First-choice votes went to eight candidates, who swept the election. The remaining contenders had to rely on the votes cast for the second choice. A candidate needed to obtain at least 23 votes to win. Those who acquired an equal or higher number of votes are declared the winners. The winning candidates from the NDA alliance were BJP’s Pankaja Munde (26-Winner), Parinay Fuke (26-Winner), Amit Gorkhe (26-Winner), Yogesh Tilekar (26-Winner) and Sadabhau Khot (14-Winner in the second round). Shivaji Rao Garje (24-Winner) and Rajesh Witekar (23-Winner) emerged victorious from NCP (Ajit Pawar) while Kripal Tumane (24-Winner) and Bhavna Gawli (25-Winner) won from Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde).
Shiv Sena (UBT) however, prevailed in the final phase after fielding Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide Milind Narvekar even though they lacked the MLAs’ strength. Two candidates from Other Backward Castes, one Dalit, one Maratha and Pankaja Munde who had just lost the general election from Beed were among the five BJP candidates that emerged victorious in the poll. Notably, Eknath Shinde corrected the error of not offering the Lok Sabha seat to two incumbent MLAs and fielded Bhavna Gawli and Krupal Tumhane who were elected to the Legislative Council. Jayant Patil lost because the other MVA allies failed to support him although he was backed by Sharad Pawar’s NCP.
There is still the possibility for approximately seven MLAs to do cross-voting from smaller parties such as Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Samajwadi Party and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, as well as independents affiliated with Maha Vikas Aghadi. The MLAs who supported Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar remain with them following the Lok Sabha election results, according to this outcome.
With 103 MLAs in addition to 12 independents and MLAs from small parties, the BJP fielded five candidates. The Congress MLAs’ cross-voting helped the BJP as well. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed, “Some people (the Opposition) were predicting cross-voting from our side, but we received votes not just from our own MLAs, but from MVA MLAs too.” Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also voiced, “The Opposition’s claim of breaching our ranks has fallen flat. Their wickets have tumbled and they are in pain.”
The results indicate a loss for MVA ahead of the assembly polls and demonstrate that Ajit Pawar and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde were successful in holding onto their legislators during the anticipation that some of them would support the opposition. The outcomes are also viewed as a win for Mahayuti’s deputy chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, who oversaw vote administration for the party. The significant development comes after his party’s poor result in the Lok Sabha poll in Maharashtra and recent defeat in the elections for the Mumbai graduates and teachers constituency elections.
