Voting for Maharashtra Legislative Council elections in progress, Mahayuti Vs MVA round 2 contest

Battle of MVA vs Mahayuti

Maharashtra Legislative Council Election, Voting is underway at the Vidhan Bhavan premises for the election to 11 seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Gaikwad cast the first vote through the secret ballot system. A total of 12 candidates are in the fray for the election to 11 seats of the Legislative Council. Voting is scheduled to take place from 9 am to 4 pm on Friday. However, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has demanded that the voting time be extended by one hour due to heavy rains in Mumbai.

There are 12 candidates for 11 seats in total.

The 288-member state assembly is the electoral college for these elections. At present, its strength is 274. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded five candidates in the election fray, while its alliance partners of the Mahayuti, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party, have fielded two candidates each. Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have fielded one candidate each, while their ally of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), NCP (Sharad Chandra Pawar) is supporting the candidate of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). In this way, 12 candidates are in the fray for 11 seats.

MVA confident of cross voting

The MVA does not have the numbers to get the third candidate elected but is banking on some MLAs from Mahayuti constituents NCP and Shiv Sena to cross-vote in its favour. In the last few days, the NCP (Sharad Chandra Pawar) has claimed that some MLAs from the rival camp led by Ajit Pawar are in touch with his party for a possible comeback after the MVA’s improved performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Semi-final before assembly elections

After the Lok Sabha contest, another round of contest is taking place between the ruling NDA and All India Alliance in Maharashtra. This contest is being seen as a semi-final because the results will reveal whether the unity of the ruling Mahayuti remains intact or some MLAs may switch sides before the assembly elections to be held in October-November. There is a buzz that after the Lok Sabha results, some MLAs from NCP Ajit Pawar’s camp may switch sides, as they are not confident of returning to power after the assembly elections.

Mahayuti vs MVA battle

NDA includes BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP. While India Block includes Congress, Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena. The NDA alliance in Maharashtra is called Mahayuti while the India alliance is called Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The ruling Mahayuti has fielded 9 candidates (BJP 5, Shiv Sena 2, NCP 2), while the opposition MVA has fielded 3 (Congress 1, Sena UBT 1, NCP (Sharad Pawar) candidates while supporting ally Peasants and Workers Party’s Jayant Patil. It remains to be seen what the situation is during voting today. Will there be cross voting or will NDA maintain its unity.