After suspected cross-voting in MLC elections, where the BJP seems to have outwitted the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition once again, a double whammy seems to be on the cards for Shiv Sena. Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde and 11 loyal party MLAs are reportedly unreachable in the aftermath of the debacle, and holed up in a Surat hotel.
This comes even after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called an urgent meeting of all Shiv Sena MLAs today at 12pm. All MLAs have been strictly asked to remain present in the meeting. This could mean real trouble for Thackeray. The BJP is said to have got 20 extra votes in the MLC elections and is 11 short of the mark needed to oust the Uddhav Thackeray government, News18 reported.
The opposition BJP on Monday won all five seats it contested in the state Legislative Council election, while Congress's Chandrakant Handore, a former minister and a dalit leader, lost.
As two candidates each of MVA allies Shiv Sena and NCP, including former BJP leader Eknath Khadse, also won, Congress leader and minister Balasaheb Thorat said the party can not blame others as its own MLAs did not vote for its candidate.
MVA partner Congress managed to bag just one seat. Ten Council seats were up for grabs and 11 candidates were in the fray for the elections, which came days after the Rajya Sabha polls, which saw the BJP handing an embarrassing defeat to the Shiv Sena-led ruling coalition. While the BJP had enough numbers in the Assembly to get four nominees elected to the Council easily, its fifth candidate Prasad Lad, too, made it to the Upper House of the state legislature after securing support from MLAs outside his party's pool of legislators.
Eight candidates, four of the BJP and two each of the Shiv Sena and NCP, secured minimum quota of 26 votes each to win in the first round of voting, said an official. Chairman of Legislative Council and NCP candidate Ramraje Nimbalkar, Leader of Opposition in the Council Pravin Darekar of the BJP and former BJP minister and now NCP nominee Eknath Khadse won in the first round. Both the candidates of the Shiv Sena—Sachin Ahir and Aamshya Padavi—also won, while the two nominees of the Congress failed to secure the minimum quota of first preference votes. The BJP had fielded Darekar, Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre, Shrikant Bharatiya and Prasad Lad—of which the first four bagged the minimum quota of votes in the first round. The fifth candidate of the BJP, Lad, and Congress nominee Bhai Jagtap secured sufficient number of votes in the second round. The second Congress candidate, Chandrakant Handore, secured 22 first preference votes, while his party colleague Jagtap got 19, but the latter managed to get more second preference votes. Handore could not make it to the finishing line.
