Mumbai: With voting underway for 10 seats in the Legislative Council, 11 candidates are in the fray in addition to the secret ballot process. Candidates from the ruling Mahavikas Aghadi and the Opposition BJP (MLC) are gearing up for the elections. However, during this election season, the reputations of NCP leader Eknath Khadse, Congress leader Bhai Jagtap, and BJP leader Prasad Lad have been tarnished.
BJP is fielding five candidates, namely Pravin Darekar, Shrikant Bharatiya, Uma Khapre, Ram Shinde and Prasad Lad. Candidates from Shiv Sena are Sachin Ahir, Amsha Padvi while Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar and Eknath Khadse are standing for NCP. Chandrakant Handore and Bhai Jagtap are representing the Indian National Congress. Each candidate need at least 26 votes to be elected into the Legislative Council.
All eyes are on the second Congress candidate, Bhai Jagtap and the fifth BJP candidate, Prasad Lad. Bharatiya Janta Party has pushed for overthrowing the NCP leader Eknath Khadse. Therefore, this election has managed to attract the attention of various political circles. The results of the Legislative Council are going to be declared soon. The voting process began at 9 a.m. and will go on till 5 p.m.
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It was against this backdrop, that the two-day long 'hotel politics' of MLAs from all the parties took placed. In the recently held Rajya Sabha elections, leader of the Opposition, Devendra Fadnavis performed a miracle and won the sixth seat. His victory came as a big blow to the reigning Mahavikas Aghadi government as Fadnavis has gained importance in Delhi.
BJP is working day and night to ensure that such victory is repeated in the Legislative Council elections. MLAs of the Mahavikas Aghadi party are working hard to ensure that such humiliation is not repeated in the Legislative Council. MLAs who were in support of Pankaja Munde have expressed their anger and dissatisfaction over the rejection of his candidature by BJP.
The split in Khadse and Munde's votes poses a threat to BJP. The votes of independent and smaller parties played a massive role in the Rajya Sabha elections, and even now, the tug-of-war to secure these votes for the Legislative Council is on. Since this election is going to be held through a secret ballot process, it has been quite a difficult task for the parties to maintain their reputations.
