Maha MLC: MVA grabs Amravati graduates seat from BJP

In a boost to the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), its candidate Dhiraj Lingade won the Amravati division graduates constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Friday, defeating sitting legislator Ranjit Patil of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Counting of votes for the Amravati graduates seat lasted nearly 30 hours as it ended at 1.30 pm, even as the process had begun at 8 am on Thursday. The results of four other seats of the Upper House of the state legislature were declared on Thursday, and two of those four seats were won by the MVA – an alliance of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress. In Amravati, MVA’s Lingade bagged 46,344 votes, while BJP’s sitting MLC Ranjit Patil secured 42,962 votes, an official said.
The counting got delayed because no candidate could secure the necessary quota of votes required for the win, the official said.
After the counting of votes ended, the figures were sent to the Election Commission for approval, and the results were declared at around 4 pm. There were 23 candidates in the fray in Amravati, of whom 21 were eliminated in the counting of second preference votes. A total of 94,200 votes were polled, of which 8,387 turned invalid, the official said.
Voting for these five Council seats – three teachers segments (falling in Nagpur, Konkan and Aurangabad divisions) and two graduates constituencies (Nashik and Amravati divisions) – was held on January 30 and counting began on Thursday morning. Teachers and graduates fulfilling certain criteria and enrolled as voters formed the electoral college for these elections.
The ruling BJP-Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena combine suffered a setback as MVA-backed candidates clinched three of the five Legislative Council seats.
These were the first MLC polls after the Eknath Shinde-led government took charge in June last year. However, there were no candidates directly fielded by either of the Shiv Sena factions (led by Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray each).
In the Nagpur teachers constituency, MVA-backed independent candidate Sudhakar Adbale trumped BJP-supported candidate Nagorao Ganar.
NCP candidate Vikram Kale won the Aurangabad teachers constituency seat defeating BJP nominee Kiran Patil.
The BJP managed to win the Konkan division teachers constituency. BJP candidate Dnyaneshwar Mhatre defeated MVA-backed nominee Balaram Patil.
Independent candidate Satyajit Tambe, whose rebellion rocked the state Congress ahead of polls, won the Nashik graduates constituency comfortably.