New Delhi: In a major setback to the BJP, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — an alliance of the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Shiv Sena — has won four out of six Graduates' and Teachers' constituencies of Maharashtra Legislative Council.
The BJP has won just one seat while another seat has been won by an independent candidate. Surprisingly, the Shiv Sena did not win a single seat even though its alliance partners bagged four. The Sena's lone candidate lost in Amravati, where an independent candidate won.
The BJP only won by-polls to the Dhule-Nandurbar local body seat.
The BJP faced its biggest loss by losing the Nagpur seat, which is party's stronghold and it was represented in the past by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's father Gangadhar Rao Fadnavis.
Gadkari, who first won the constituency in 1989, scored four more victories from there before contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha election that brought the BJP to power at the Centre. The Congress has won the Nagpur seat for the first time in 55 years.
BJP leaders, including Fadnavis and Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil, also campaigned extensively in Pune, where two seats held by the BJP went to the ruling coalition. The Congress and the NCP won a seat each.
"The results of Maharashtra Legislative Council polls are not as per our expectations. We were expecting more seats but won only one. We miscalculated the combined power of the three parties (Maha Vikas Aghadi)," Fadnavis told reporters.
The elections held on Tuesday were seen as a prestige battle between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and the opposition BJP. This is the first electoral test for the year-old coalition of ideologically opposite parties, which has repeatedly been ridiculed by the BJP as an unstable entity.
Commenting on the victory, NCP's Sharad Pawar said, "It was the Maha Vikas Aghadi's collective effort and their performance of one year which the people gave their mandate for. Congress's win in Nagpur and MVA's win means people took a different decision
this time."