As the sitting Congress and Shiv Sena members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council succeeded in retaining their seats from the two Mumbai local authority constituencies, their vote share indicate that they polled more votes than their party strength.
Congress’ Ashok alias Bhai Jagtap and Sena’s Ramdas Kadam retained their seats, but the results declared yesterday also show that Jagtap and his rival Prasad Lad of NCP secured more votes than what was expected.
Corporators of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai voted in the elections. Of the 230 corporators, 201 voted.
In MCGM, Sena has 88 corporators, BJP 31, Congress 51, MNS 28 and NCP 14. Rest are from other parties.
Two of the 201 votes cast were declared invalid. Results show that Jagtap polled 64 votes, Kadam 86, and Lad 55.
MNS’s 28 corporators abstained from voting. The SP had announced support for NCP.
The BJP had withdrew its candidate Manoj Kotak from Mumbai. In return, the Congress facilitated unopposed election of BJP candidate in Nagpur.
BJP had also pledged support to NCP’s Prasad Lad.
Jagtap polled 13 more votes than his party’s strength in the MCGM. Lad polled as many as 41 extra votes.
Kadam, on the other hand, polled 86 votes, two less than Shiv Sena’s strength. The speculation, therefore, is either the two invalid votes were of Sena, or two of its corporators voted for rivals.
BJP’s support for Congress and NCP too is significant, as the MCGM elections are due in early 2017, and the party’s decades-old alliance with Sena is under strain.
