The election to elect 11 members of the Legislative Council (MLC) on July 12 is seen as a semi-final before the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The political situation in Maharashtra has remained unstable since the 2019 Assembly elections, which have seen the state topple two governments and three Chief Ministers. The Assembly elections two and a half years ago saw crossover voting in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won over the then ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (an alliance of the Indian National Congress, the United Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)), which was seen as the first step towards the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray government.
It was subsequently revealed that a group of Shiv Sena legislators led by Eknath Shinde had backed the BJP candidate to win, resulting in the defeat of the Congress candidate who was expected to receive the first preference vote. Despite this shocking turn of events, no action was taken and the Thackeray government was eventually toppled by a rebellion led by Shinde and over 50 Shiv Sena legislators in the state. A new Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government was formed in the state, with Shinde as Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister.
Mahayuthy and MVA candidate
After a turbulent 2022, the Mahayuti (Shinde Sena, Ajit Pawar’s NCP, BJP) and the MVA, consisting of the Indian National Congress, Thackeray’s Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, are set to contest the biennial elections. The ruling Mahayuti alliance has fielded nine candidates, while the opposition MVA has fielded three. The BJP, with five candidates, is the most numerous, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP and Shinde’s Shiv Sena have fielded two each. Of the MVA’s partners, the Indian National Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have fielded one candidate each, while the NCP (SP) is backing Indian Peasant and Workers Party candidate Jayant Patil. The Sena (UBT) has fielded Thackeray’s confidant Milind Narvekar, while the Indian National Congress has re-nominated Pradnya Satav, wife of late Congress leader Rajiv Satav. Barring any withdrawals, the election will be held on July 12th.
All eyes will be on Narvekar, who has connections in all parties and the ability to control any extra votes the MVA may need. As per the ballot box, the MVA has the power to elect only two candidates on the basis of first preference votes. But when Narvekar filed his nomination, it sent a clear message to the ruling Mahayuti that votes could be split.
The BJP nominated Marathwada OBC leader Pankaja Munde as its candidate, who was recently defeated by an NCP candidate in the Lok Sabha elections. The other candidates were Amit Golke, Sadabhau Kot, Yogesh Tillekar and Parinay Phuke, who was given re-election. Shinde’s Shiv Sena gave nods to former MPs Bawana Gawli and Kurpal Tumane, whose candidatures were defeated in the Lok Sabha elections due to anti-incumbency and negative poll reports. To appease these influential leaders, Shinde gave them a backdoor route to the polls. Ajit Pawar has shown faith in his supporters Shivajirao Garje and Rajesh Vitekar.
Number Speak
According to the figures, each MLC candidate needs 23 first-choice votes to secure their seat for the next six years.
The ruling BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP have 179 MLAs each, and including other alliance partners the total is 203. In contrast, the MVA, comprising the Indian National Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), has 69 MPs.
