Maharashtra Council polls: MVA snatches Amravati graduates seat from BJP

In a boost to the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA its candidate Dhiraj Lingade won the Amravati division graduates constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Friday defeating sitting legislator Ranjit Patil of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJPCounting of votes for the Amravati graduates seat lasted nearly 30 hours as it ended at 130 pm even as the process had begun at 8 am on ThursdayThe results of four other seats of the Upper House of the state legislature were declared on Thursday and two of those four seats were won by the MVA an alliance of Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Nationalist Congress Party NCP and CongressIn Amravati MVAs Lingade bagged 46344 votes while BJPs sitting MLC Ranjit Patil secured 42962 votes an official saidThe counting got delayed because no candidate could secure the necessary quota of votes required for the win the official saidAlso Read Maharashtra Setback for BJP in MLC pollsAfter the counting of votes ended the figures were sent to the Election Commission for approval and the results were declared at around 4 pmThere were 23 candidates in the fray in Amravati of whom 21 were eliminated in the counting of second preference votes A total of 94200 votes were polled of which 8387 turned invalid the official saidVoting for these five Council seats three teachers segments falling in Nagpur Konkan and Aurangabad divisions and two graduates constituencies Nashik and Amravati divisions was held on January 30 and counting began on Thursday morning Teachers and graduates fulfilling certain criteria and enrolled as voters formed the electoral college for these electionsThe ruling BJPBalasahebanchi Shiv Sena combine suffered a setback as MVAbacked candidates clinched three of the five Legislative Council seats These were the first MLC polls after the Eknath Shindeled government took charge in June last year However there were no candidates directly fielded by either of the Shiv Sena factions led by Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray eachIn the Nagpur teachers constituency MVAbacked independent candidate Sudhakar Adbale trumped BJPsupported candidate Nagorao GanarNCP candidate Vikram Kale won the Aurangabad teachers constituency seat defeating BJP nominee Kiran PatilThe BJP managed to win the Konkan division teachers constituency BJP candidate Dnyaneshwar Mhatre defeated MVAbacked nominee Balaram PatilIndependent candidate Satyajit Tambe whose rebellion rocked the state Congress ahead of polls won the Nashik graduates constituency comfortablyThis 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