United MVA mauls BJP, wins 4 of 6 seats in MLC polls

What could be the nemesis of their archrival Bharatiya Janata Party BJP in the longer run the Maha Vikas Aghadi stood united in the legislative council polls winning four out of six seats Though Shiv Sena lost a sitting MLC to an independent in Amravati the Congress and Nationalist Party NCP completed the BJPs rout in its strongholds of Nagpur Aurangabad and Pune divisionsNationalist Congress Party NCP workers celebrate in Mumbai after the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA won four of six seats in the legislative council polls on Friday PicsPTIThe biennial elections were conducted on Tuesday in the graduates constituencies Nagpur Pune and Aurangabad revenue divisions and teachers Pune and Amravati revenue divisions and a byelection in the selfgovernment segment of DhuleNandurbar districts On Friday the results brought the MVA a sense of great achievement and confidence even as its performance in the first year is being assessed The MVAs unity has been put under the scrutiny time and again and speculations made about Uddhav Thackeray governments stability and longevityUpsets in Nagpur and PuneA stunner was delivered in Nagpur graduates constituency where the BJP held fort for the last 58 years Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari beat BJPs Sandeep Joshi by a formidable lead The Nagpur seat was held by Anil Sole who was dropped for JoshiBefore Sole held it union minister Nitin Gadkari and exCM Devendra Fadnavis father Gangadharrao Fadnavis represented the BJP here Before Fadnavis and Gadkaris elections the graduates in Nagpur revenue division always sent senior Sangh Parivar members to the upper house Wanjari changed it on Friday The defeat is a setback to the BJPs top leadershipBJPs other big leader state head Chandrakant Patils fiefdom collapsed when NCPs Arun Lad won handsomely in the Pune graduates segment A dominant BJP had sent Patil to the house multiple terms from here before he won the Assembly polls from Pune city last year In Pune division teachers constituency Congresss Jayant Aasgavkar was leading comfortably against BJPsupported independent Jitendra PawarNCPs Satish Chavan retained the Aurangabad graduates seat beating BJPs Shirish Boralkar BJPs only gain came in DhuleNandurbar where local strongman Amrish Patel won a byelection The vacancy was created when Patel resigned from the Congress and quit the seat before joining the BJPSena defeatedSena faced an upset in Amravati division teachers constituency Its official candidate Shrikant Deshpande who had won with significant margin earlier as the BJP and Sena candidate lost to an independent Kiran Sarnaik Local Sena leaders accused the NCP of helping Sarnaik instead of Deshpande They said Sarnaik is related to a senior NCP minister from Vidarbha The BJP finished fourth because it could not contain rebellion of the likeminded candidates State BJP president Chandrakant Patil said the NCP backstabbed Shiv Sena by supporting the independentGain was historicMVAs architect and NCP president Sharad Pawar said the gain in Nagpur and Pune was historic and it showed antiBJP sentiments and was a reflection of MVAs good performance The picture has changed in the state he saidFadnavis accepted the results saying they were not as per our expectations We were expecting more seats but won only one We miscalculated the combined power of the three parties We will introspect and we would also want the CMs party to introspect because it hasnt won a single seatKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news