Jolt for BJP in Maharashtra, wins just one out of 5 seats in MLC polls

Mumbai: The BJP in Maharashtra suffered a jolt when it performed poorly in the biennial elections for the MLC polls in the state. Five Legislative Council seats from the Graduates' and Teachers' quota and one local body seat were up for grabs.

Out of the six seats the BJP managed to win only and one embarrassingly the BJP again lost an election in Nagpur which was supposed to the party’s bastion. The Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena which are part of an alliance in the government contested as an alliance for the polls, with the Congress and NCP contesting 2 seats each in the graduate and Teachers constituency with the Sena contesting the lone seat.

The sixth legislative council was from the Dhule-Nandurbar council seat and since the seat was held earlier by the Congress the latter was contesting the polls.


The Congress and NCP candidates won in all the five graduate and teachers constituency, with the BJP only managing a win in the Dhule-Nandurbar seat council seat.

While these are just MLC seats, the BJP approached these elections by deploying its entire party machinery as a win in majority of the seats would have reflected poorly in the government. The results though has the BJP it self suffering an embarrassment.

Importantly the party lost in Pune where it had a strong hold and even in Nagpur which is supposed to be its bastion. The Congress for instance had not won the Nagpur MLC seat for the last 58 years. The seat was once held by BJP’s Nitin Gadkari. The loss comes in the backdrop of the BJP doing poorly in the Nagpur region during the assembly polls too.