THE OLD FIRM STILL RUNS

It was meant to be a cakewalk for the ruling coalition, but the results of the elections to the Maharashtra legislative council in five seats from the teachers' and graduates' constituencies have come as a rude shock to the BJP and the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS).

- Dhaval Kulkarni

The opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which seemed to be in a state of disarray before these polls, won three of the five seats, with just one going to a BJP nominee and another to a rebel Congressman.

What adds to the BJPBSS's embarrassment is that this was the first real electoral test for the Eknath ShindeDevendra Fadnavis government after it came to power in a dramatic coup in June 2022. The bypolls to the Andheri East assembly constituency that had preceded it, in November, was but a token fight as the BJP had opted out of the race. (Rutuja Latke, widow of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke, had consequently won easily.)

But the present loss was serious, as the BJP was dealt a decisive blow in strongholds like Nagpur and Amravati. Aurangabad stayed out of its grasp too, and only Konkan came as a consolation prize-unless the BJP was willing to count the vicarious pleasure of seeing the MVA's nose being rubbed in the dust by a Congress rebel in Nashik.

Nagpur, home base of the RSS as also deputy CM Fadnavis, will leave the bitterest aftertaste. In the teachers' constituency here, the BJP-backed candidate Nago Ganar lost to Sudhakar Adbale of the Congress and Vidarbha Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh. In the Amravati graduates' constituency, incumbent legislator and Fadnavis loyalist Dr Ranjit Patil lost to Dheeraj Lingade of the Congress. Lingade, a leader of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), had jumped ship to the Congress to bag a nomination on poll eve.