Mumbai, Jun 20: Five candidates of the BJP-Pravin Darekar, Ram Shinde, Shrikant Bharatiya, Uma Khapre & Prasad Lad have registered thumping victory in the Maharashtra Legislative Council election. While Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena won two seats each Congress on the other hand got one seat in the polls but lost another.
One of the key leaders in the BJP, Khadse was pipped by Devendra Fadnavis in 2014 for the post of chief minister. Khadse was made Revenue minister in the Fadnavis cabinet but had to step down over allegations of financial irregularities.
Earlier, the returning officer for the MLC elections invalidated two votes - one each of the ruling ally NCP and the opposition BJP - after objections were raised by leaders of the respective parties, an official said.
A total of 11 candidates were in the fray for 10 Maharashtra Legislative Council seats, with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA allies) - Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress - fielding two candidates each.
The BJP had nominated five candidates. The elections were necessitated as the tenure of nine sitting members of the legislative council is coming to an end on July 7, while the election for the 10th seat was held following the death of a BJP legislator earlier this year.
Members of the Maharashtra Assembly voted in the legislative Council elections at Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai on Monday. The polling ended at 4 pm.
The total strength in the Assembly is 288 members, 285 of them cast their votes as one of the members Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latake, died last month.
And two NCP MLAs, former ministers Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, are in jail in money-laundering cases and were denied permission by the court to vote.