BJP failed to judge combined strength of MVA: Devendra Fadnavis on MLC poll results

MUMBAI: With the BJP facing setbacks in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, its leader Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said his party failed to gauge the combined strength of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies. He said the party will analyse the poll results and prepare for the next election in a better way.

In a setback to the opposition party, MVA candidates have so far won three out of five constituencies - three graduates' and two teachers'. Elections for these five seats along with one local bodies seat were held on December 1. The Dhule Nandurbar local bodies seat was won by BJP's Amrish Patel.

Talking to reporters here, Fadnavis said, "We could not judge the combined strength of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in these polls. Now we know how big fight they can put up together. We will prepare better for the next polls." "We could only win one seat out of the six. We will analyse the results and plan for the next challenge. We will also discuss the issue of selection of candidates, though prima facie I think they were suitable ones," he said. "This time, the state administration carried out registration of voters for the MLC elections. But the names of some members of my family as well as that of Union minister Nitin Gadkari were not found in the voters' list despite the submission of forms in time," he said.

"Generally voter registration in such polls is done by the political parties, but this time administration took the responsibility," he said.. He also taunted Shiv Sena saying, "Although Shiv Sena has the chief minister' post, it could only win one seat. The election has actually benefited the Congress and the NCP more than the Sena. The party should think about it." Another BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said, "We will introspect over the setbacks that the party received in these polls. I think we were caught unawares in this election," he said.

"We had won most of the earlier elections, which might have led to complacency among the BJP leaders. But we cannot immediately analyse what happened in the polls. We will sit and discuss with party leaders," he said.