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In a jolt to Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won five out of 10 seats in the MLC polls on Tuesday. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance which included NCP, Shiv Sena, and Congress have won the rest of the seat. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena won two each while Congress was able to clinch one seat out of the total 10 seats in Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) that went to polls on Monday.
After the declaration of the result, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray has called an urgent meeting of all Shiv Sena MLAs today.
Thackeray has called an emergency meeting after suspected cross-voting in the Maharashtra MLC polls.
According to agencies report, all MLAs have been strictly asked to remain present in the meeting. Meanwhile, Bal Thackeray loyalist Eknath Shinde will be addressing a press conference in Surat today at noon.
As many as eleven candidates were in the fray for the elections to the ten seats in the MLC. All the five candidates of the BJP -- Pravin Darekar, Ram Shinde, Shrikant Bharatiya, Uma Khapre, and Prasad Lad emerged victorious. NCP candidates-- Ramraje Nimbalkar and Eknath Khadse-- and the Shiv Sena nominees- Aamshya Padavi and Sachin Ahir also secured their seats. Of the two candidates fielded by Congress, Bhai Jagtap secured the win while Chandrakant Handore lost.
BJP's winning candidate claimed that cross-voting happened among members of Shiv Sena and Congress.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam had pointed out that Handore was lost due to "internal sabotage".
"It is really unfortunate that a Dalit candidate Chandrakant Handore who was supposed to get first preference votes of Congress MLAs lost to the second preference candidate of the Congress party. It is nothing but internal sabotage. My sympathy is with Handore," he said in a tweet.
The Members of the Assembly voted in the legislative Council elections at Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai on Monday.
The BJP has 106 MLAs, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 53, and Congress has 44 MLAs. A total of 285 members cast their votes in the MLC polls.
Separately, a Maharashtra Congress Minister has claimed there was unrest in the Shiv Sena for about a week as the party minister Eknath Shinde went incommunicado and camping in Gujarat along with some party MLAs after the state Legislative Council polls.
Shinde, who holds the department of urban development, wants to become the deputy chief minister, the Congress minister told PTI news agency.
An upheaval was going on in the Shiv Sena for nearly a week, the leader said. The agency said that CM Thackeray has called a meeting of the Sena MLAs on Tuesday precisely regarding this purpose.