The polling ended at 4pm and the counting of votes will start at 5pm. (File)Members of the Maharashtra Assembly voted in the legislative Council elections at Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai on Monday. The polling ended at 4pm and the counting of votes will start at 5pm.
The elections to ten seats in the Council have eleven candidates in the fray. The BJP has five candidates—Praveen Darekar, Ram Shinde, Shrikant Bharatiya, Uma Khapre and Prasad Lad. The Congress candidates are Bhai Jagtap and Chandrakant Handore. While the NCP has fielded Ramraje Nimbalkar and Eknath Khadse, the Shiv Sena nominees are Aamshya Padavi and Sachin Ahir.
To get a candidate elected, 26 votes are votes required. While the total strength in the Assembly is 288 members, 285 of them cast their votes. One of the members, Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latake, died last month and two jailed NCP MLAs, former ministers Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, were not allowed to vote. They are in judicial custody in money-laundering cases.
The BJP has 106 MLAs and the Shiv Sena 55 and the NCP 51. While the Congress has 44 MLAs, smaller parties and independents together have 29 MLAs.
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The biggest challenge remains for the BJP, which requires 24 additional votes to get its five candidates elected. The Congress needs eight additional votes to send both of its candidates to the Council.
The Sena has the full quota of 52 votes to ensure the victory of both of its candidates. It has three surplus votes. The NCP is short of just one vote to take it its tally to 52 votes and get both candidates elected.
However, since MLCs are elected by secret ballot, it will have to be seen which way the smaller parties and independents have voted. Another interesting feature will be whether there have been any cross-voting by members overriding their party whips.
Since morning every party was closely monitoring their members. While Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP has taken a big gamble by fielding a fifth candidate, which necessitated a contest, the party ensured all of its MLAs cast their votes. Two ailing BJP MLAs—Laxman Jagtap, who represents Pimpri-Chinchwad, and Mukta Tilak, who represents the Kasbapeth seat in Pune—were brought by an ambulance.
The Bahujan Vikad Aghadi, whose three votes were the most sought-after ones for all candidates, had to summon one member, Kshitij Thakur, who was abroad.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar got into action mode in the past 48 hours, making the elections a prestige issue for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. He not only worked to see everything was right for his party members, but also took initiatives for the NCP’s allies. Congress leaders sought help from the Sena and the NCP to muster the requisite numbers. However, results will show who has succeeded in getting whose support
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