There is no point in predicting the results in Monday’s MLC polls. Not because the winners have already been decided, but because these elections, whenever not held unopposed, have sprung some stunners. 

The uninitiated, too, will be surprised to know that one of the most successful Maharashtra CMs, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, had lost the MLC cliff-hanger in 1996 by 0.59 votes as an independent. In 2010, the sitting Transport Minister Anil Parab couldn’t win despite garnering eight more first-preference votes than the Congress’s winning candidate Vijay Sawant. Leftist veteran Ganpatrao Deshmukh had succumbed to cross-voting in 1996. In 2008, Congress’s Sudhakar Gangane was beaten by infighting in the party, which had sufficient votes to get him elected.