Maharashtra MLC Election: NDA has won a landslide victory in the Legislative Council (MLC) elections in Maharashtra. The alliance has won 9 out of 11 seats. INDIA alliance had fielded three candidates, out of which only 2 could win. There is news of 7 to 8 Congress MLAs cross voting.
In the counting of 11 seats, BJP has won 5 seats, Shiv Sena Shinde and NCP Ajit Pawar factions have won 2 seats each. Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress from INDIA alliance have won one seat each. Jayant Patil, who stood with the support of Sharad Pawar, has lost the election. Voting was held for 11 seats today i.e. Friday (12 July). Counting took place after this.
To win the Legislative Council elections, a candidate needs the votes of 23 MLAs. These include 103 MLAs of BJP, 38 of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), 42 of NCP (Ajit faction), 37 of Congress, 15 of Shiv Sena (UBT) and 10 of NCP (Sharad Pawar).
BJP has the maximum number of 5 candidates who won
| Candidate/Party | how many votes did you win by |
| Amit Gorkhe (BJP) | won by 26 votes |
| Pankaja Munde (BJP) | won by 26 votes |
| Parinay Phuke (BJP) | won by 26 votes |
| Yogesh Tilekar (BJP) | won by 26 votes |
| Rajesh Vitekar (NCP-Ajit) | won by 23 votes |
| Shivajirao Garje (NCP-Ajit) | won by 24 votes |
| Bhavana Gawali (Shiv Sena Shinde) | won by 24 votes |
| Kripal Tumane (Shiv Sena Shinde) | won by 24 votes |
| Pragya Satav (Congress) | won by 25 votes |
| Milind Narvekar (Shiv Sena-UBT) | won by 23 votes |
| Jayant Patil (Shekap- NCP Sharad Pawar) | Losers |
There were 12 candidates in the fray for 11 seats
11 members of the Legislative Council are retiring on 27 July. To fill their place, 12 candidates were in the fray for 11 seats. There are currently 274 MLAs in the 288-seat Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, who voted for them. Ganpat Gaikwad, who is in jail in the firing case, also cast his vote.
The ruling Mahayuti (NDA) in Maharashtra had fielded 9 candidates in the elections. BJP had fielded the maximum number of 5 candidates, Ajit Pawar’s NCP and Shiv Sena Shinde faction had two candidates each. The opposition Mahavikas Aghadi had 3 candidates in the fray.
In this, Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT have fielded one candidate each, while Sharad Pawar’s NCP i.e. NCP-SP was supporting Shetkari Kamgar Paksha candidate Jayant Patil.
Elections were held on 4 seats on June 26 ; NDA-India block got 2-2 seats each
Elections were held for four seats of Maharashtra Legislative Council on 26 June. In the results declared on 1 July, Mahayuti and Mahavikas Aghadi were tied. Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena-UBT dominated the Mumbai Graduate and Mumbai Teacher seats.
Anil Parab won from Mumbai Graduate seat and J.M. Abhyankar won from Mumbai Teachers seat. Meanwhile, BJP’s Niranjan Davkhare won from Konkan Graduate seat. While Shiv Sena’s Kishore Darade won from Nashik Teachers seat.
Like Rajya Sabha, Vidhan Parishad is also the upper house, this is the election process
Senior journalist Jitendra Dixit explains that Vidhan Parishad is the upper house like Rajya Sabha. There is a provision in Article 169 of the Indian Constitution that many states can establish or abolish Vidhan Parishad. Currently, a total of 6 states have Vidhan Parishad. These include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Like the Rajya Sabha, the Legislative Council is also a permanent house. It cannot be dissolved in between. Elections are held for this also every two years. Common citizens cannot participate in these elections. One-third of the members of the Legislative Council retire every two years.
One third of the members are elected by MLAs
One third of the members of Maharashtra Legislative Council are elected by the representatives of Municipal Corporation or Mahanagar Palika. While one third of the members are elected by the MLAs elected to the Legislative Assembly. 1/6th of the members are appointed by the Governor, who come from fields like arts, sports, science, social service. Apart from this, the teacher class and the graduate class also appoint their representatives.
The total number of members of the Legislative Council cannot be more than one-third of the number of members of the Legislative Assembly. In Maharashtra, the Legislative Council can have 77 members along with 288 members of the Legislative Assembly. The qualifications for members of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly are almost the same.
However, the age limit for the Legislative Assembly is 25 years and for the Legislative Council is 30 years. Members of the Legislative Assembly are elected for 5 years, while members of the Legislative Council are elected for 6 years.
The Legislative Assembly is more powerful. The Chief Minister has to prove majority in the Legislative Assembly, otherwise the government falls. The Chief Minister must be a member of either the Legislative Council or the Legislative Assembly.
