Nagpur: The Bharatiya Janata Party managed to retain both the seats of Maharashtra legislative council in the biennial elections, results of which were declared on Thursday. Apparently, cross-voting by members who defied party lines, was rampant in both the seats.
Minister of state for industries and environment Pravin Pote won with a record number of votes in Amravati defeating his Congress rival Anil Madhogadhiya, who managed to secure just 17 votes. In Wardha-Chandrapur, Gadchiroli local bodies constituency, Ramdas Ambatkar of BJP won by a thin margin of 27 votes.
Polling was held on Monday for both the seats in Vidarbha along with five other seats in the state. In the final state tally, of the seven seats, BJP won 2, Shiv Sena 2 while the NCP bagged one seat. Congress drew a blank as votes were counted on Thursday. Elected members of the Zilla Parishad, municipal council members and panchayat samiti heads were voters in the elections.
In Amravati, reducing the fight to a ‘no contest’, Pote secured 458 of the 488 votes polled, thus making a mockery of the Congress candidate who could manage just 17 votes. Three votes were NOTA while 10 were declared invalid. Out of the valid 475 votes, the quota was fixed at 238. Pote exceeded it by a whopping 220 votes.
With Shiv Sena, Yuva Swabhiman Party and Prahar lending their support to Pote, his victory was a foregone conclusion. The only point of interest was to see whether Congress and its allies stick to their candidate. As the result showed, the official Congress candidate did not find much favour with his own voters.
After posting his first win from this constituency in 2012, Pote retained his seat with flourish. “I thank all the voters for reposing their faith in me. It is a vote to the leadership of BJP in the state and at the centre,” he said, soon after his election was announced. Collector Abhijit Bangar handed him the certificate. Divisional Commissioner JP Gupta was the observer.
The polling for the constituency was held on May 21. Out of the 489 voters comprising 92 of Amravati Municipal Corporation, 59 ZP members, 14 panchayat samiti chairpersons, 249 nagar parishad members, 75 nagar panchayat members, 488 exercised their franchise.
In Wardha-Chandrapur -Gadchiroli, the tussle was close between BJP’s Ambatkar, who bagged 528 votes, and the Congress nominee Indrakumar Saraf, who got 491 votes. The cut-off for winner was fixed at 510 first preference votes as from the total 1,056 votes polled, only 1,019 were found to be valid. Interestingly, two independents — Saurabha Timande and Jagdish Taori — together got zero votes. It was clear that some BJP votes and that of their allies went to Congress candidate.
