Outcome of Maha MLC polls suggests unrest in MVA, says Fadnavis, thanks Independents and small parties

With the BJP handing a stinging defeat to the Congress in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls by winning all the five seats it had contested and ensuring that one of the Congress nominees loses, Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said the results indicate unrest among ruling MLAs against the MVA government.The BJP pulled off another difficult win in the tight contest, days after it ensured the victory of its third nominee against Shiv Senas second candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls for six sets.

With the BJP handing a stinging defeat to the Congress in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls by winning all the five seats it had contested and ensuring that one of the Congress' nominees loses, Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said the results indicate unrest among ruling MLAs against the MVA government.

The BJP pulled off another difficult win in the tight contest, days after it ensured the victory of its third nominee against Shiv Sena's second candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls for six sets. Fadnavis said the BJP's victory became possible because of the support of all the Independent MLAs and small parties.

In a setback for the MVA, the BJP won all the five seats it contested in the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Monday, while two candidates each of ruling allies NCP and Shiv Sena, including Eknath Khadse of NCP, also sailed through, but their partner Congress suffered a jolt as it managed to bag just one of the two seats it had contested.

''In the Rajya Sabha elections, we managed to win first preference votes of 123 MLAs but in this election, we managed to win 134 votes. This is an indication of unrest among the MLAs against the state government,'' Fadnavis told reporters after the results were out. Speaking about how BJP overcame the number crunch, the former chief minister said the BJP didn't have a single vote for its fifth candidate in the MLC polls, but we managed to win that seat. ''This became possible because of the support of all the Independent MLAs and small parties,'' he added.

''Our fight against the MVA government is for the cause of the people. The BJP managed to win with more votes than the votes polled by (two) candidates of Congress in the MLC polls,'' he said.

Speaking on cross-voting, Fadnavis said while many assumptions are floating he only knows what exactly happened. ''I know the MLAs and which candidate got their votes,'' he added.