എംഎൽസി തിരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പ്: യുപിയിലും കർണാടകയിലും ബിജെപിക്ക് ആധിപത്യം; മഹാരാഷ്ട്രയിൽ പ്രതിപക്ഷത്തിന് മുന്നേറ്റം

New Delhi:

The BJP and its allies won a good number of seats in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka during the elections for 28 legislative council seats across four states, even as the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) pushed back in Maharashtra by retaining the Nagpur seat.

In Maharashtra, the Congress got a second consecutive win in the Nagpur Division Graduates' constituency, a region regarded as a stronghold of the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Congress candidate Abhijit Govindrao Wanjarri, backed by the MVA, defeated his BJP rival Sudhakar Kohle by a margin of 3,271 votes after a prolonged counting process using ballot papers. The MVA comprises Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP).

With this victory, the Congress has opened its account in the legislative council elections across the four states. The outcome is huge as Nagpur is the home city of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and falls within the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

It also serves as the headquarters of the RSS which has a strong ideological and organisational presence in the region.

Wanjarri told reporters the BJP had made an extensive effort to win the election but failed to produce results. "The way the BJP put its all into these elections; big leaders of the BJP were in Nagpur. However, voters were with us," Wanjarri said.

Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal said the BJP nominee was defeated in the RSS headquarters. "The balloon of illusion has burst; hatred has been defeated," Sapkal said in a post on X.

Overall in Maharashtra, the ruling Mahayuti allies - the BJP and the Shiv Sena - won one seat each out of the five legislative council constituencies, while the MVA claimed victory in the remaining three.

While the results of three constituencies have been formally declared, counting continued in two other seats. The NCP (SP) won the Pune Graduates' constituency and claimed to be leading in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) Graduates' constituency; both seats were held earlier by the undivided NCP, currently a Mahayuti constituent, before it split in 2023.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won six of the 11 legislative council seats while the Samajwadi Party secured three. The BJP won the Agra Graduates' constituency, the Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' constituency, the Lucknow Teachers' constituency and both the Teachers' and Graduates' constituencies in Meerut.

The party also won the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' seat, where independent candidate Rajiv Yadav has alleged voter manipulation. The Samajwadi Party secured the Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates' constituency along with the Teachers' constituencies in Varanasi and Agra-Aligarh.

In Karnataka, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) swept all four seats in a setback for the Congress government. The BJP won three seats - Shashil G Namoshi won the North-East Teachers' constituency, SV Sanknur took the West Graduates' constituency and KM Suresh secured the South-East Graduates' constituency.

Its ally, the Janata Dal (Secular), won the remaining seat with AP Ranganath winning the Bengaluru Teachers' constituency by 908 votes.

In Bihar, the BJP won two declared seats - Narendra Singh took the Tirhut Teachers' constituency and NK Yadav won the Kosi Graduates' seat - while the party was also leading in the Darbhanga Graduates' constituency where counting is going on.

Among other declared results in the state, JD(U) candidate Neeraj Kumar won the Patna Graduates' seat, RJD candidate Sanjeev Kumar won the Patna Teachers' seat and Jan Suraaj nominee SP Rai secured the Darbhanga Teachers' constituency.

Independent candidates Rahul Raj and Banshidhar Brijwasi won the Saran Teachers' and Tirhut Graduates' constituencies, respectively.