BJP wins five of 10 Legislative Council seats in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis was euphoric on Monday after his party won five seats in Maharashtra legislative council polls.

Devendra Fadnavis is fully justified to be happy as his party is making deeper inroads into the state politics winning five out of 10 seats in the polls to the Legislative Council.

Of the 10 seats that went to polls on Monday, the partners in the ruling front-- NCP and Shiv Sena-- got two seats each, and their third partner Congress was reduced to single digit.

All of the five candidates of BJP including Praveen Darekar, Ram Shinde, Shrikant Bharatiya, Uma Khapre and Prasad Lad won the polls, according to The Indian Express.

Devendra Fadnavis said in the Assembly that all five BJP candidates got elected. In Rajya Sabha, BJP got 123 votes, he added.

The BJP had adequate numbers in the Assembly to get four nominees elected to the Council hands down.

BJP's fifth candidate Prasad Lad got in the Upper House of the Legislator after getting support lawmakers outside his party.

BJP's latest big win follows the embarrassing defeat it handed out to Shiv Sena-led ruling coalition in the Rajya Sabha polls.

BJP won three out of the six Rajya Sabha seats for the state and the third seat was won despite it lacked in numbers in the Assembly.

As for Legislative Council polls, The BJP gained votes beyond its total number of 106 MLAs from either Independent lawmakers or from small parties.

Where BJP needed 24 additional votes to elect five candidates, the Congress required only 8 additional votes.

All the candidates secured the minimum quota of 26 votes each to make it to the Upper House of the state legislature, according to India Today.