Counting underway for polls to five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats

The counting of votes for elections to five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council began at 8 am on Thursday an official saidThe sixyear term of five Council members three from teachers and two from graduates constituencies is expiring on February 7 and polling was held on Monday to fill up the upcoming vacanciesWhile the Konkan teachers constituency had recorded the highest voter turnout at 9102 per cent the Nashik division graduates seat logged the lowest polling at 4928 per cent The teachers constituencies of Aurangabad and Nagpur recorded 86 per cent and 8623 per cent voting respectively while the Amravati division graduates constituency seat saw a voter turnout of 4967 per centThe contest for biennial elections to the Upper House of the state legislature was primarily between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJPBalasahebanchi Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde combine and candidates backed by the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA comprising the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party NCPAlso Read Nothing for Mumbai Maharashtra in Budget 2023 says Ajit PawarAll eyes were on the Nashik division graduates seat where the Congress saw a rebellion in its ranks in the runup to the polls Threetime MLC Sudhir Tambe was the official Congress candidate from the seat but he did not file his nomination papers As he opted out of the race his son Satyajeet Tambe entered the fray as an independent The Congress later suspended both of themDifferences had cropped up in the MVA over the polls Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut had last month said the MLC polls have clearly shown confusion in the Opposition bloc Later MVA leaders sat together and ironed out differencesThe MVA had declared support to Shubhangi Patil independent in the Nashik graduates constituency Balaram Patil independent in the Konkan teachers seat Vikram Kale NCP in the Aurangabad teachers segment Sudhakar Adbale independent in the Nagpur teachers constituency and Dhiraj Lingade Congress in the Amravati graduates seatThe BJP had fielded Ranjit Patil from the Amravati graduates seat and Nagorao Ganar Dyaneshwar Mhatre and Kiran Patil from Nagpur Konkan and Aurangabad teachers constituencies respectivelyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever