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Jolt for BJP in Maharashtra MLC polls. Wins only one out of 6 seats

MUMBAI: The BJP suffered a major jolt on Friday as it lost all the 5 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) graduates' and teachers' biennial polls that was held on December 1. 

The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi's of the Congress Party, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 4 of these, with Congress winning the Nagpur and one of the two Pune seats, NCP winning the Aurangabad and other Pune MLC seat. The Amravati seat was won by independent candidate Sarnaik Ramrao.

Although BJP candidate Amrishbhai Patel won the bye election of the Dhule-cum-Nandurbar Local authorities’ constituency, BJP’s overall loss especially in Nagpur is very embarrassing, especially to opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis who had put in strong efforts to win the polls.

Nagpur is considered BJP’s strong hold where the Congress had not won the Nagpur MLC seat for the last 58 years and the seat has been held by several of BJP’s stalwarts like Nitin Gadkari for nearly 25 years and prior to him by Gangadhar Fadnavis, father of Devendra Fadnavis. 

Buoyed by the wins, the Shiv Sena on Saturday said that impregnable BJP can be defeated if parties fight elections together. The editorial in Shiv Sena's mouthpiece Saamana quoted, "The results of the elections to five MLC seats showed that the "overconfident" BJP was losing ground in the state. "

"The headquarters of the Sangh are in Nagpur, but despite the strong association of Sangh ideologues, Nagpur Mayor Sandeep Joshi had to accept defeat. The stronghold was tunneled, now the foundation has been shaken," it added.

The state Congress Party spokesperson Sachin Sawant had a very witty reaction, "Robert Shet who has been calling the Agahadi government as the government of Amar, Akbar and Anthony has been defeated by a landslide," he said, adding, "The combination of Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena is a hit."

Sawant was taking a swipe at Union Minister and former state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve who had in early October mocked the Aghadi government in Maharashtra by calling it an Amar Akbar Anthony government.

Respond to the jibe equally creatively then, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had accepted that they are an Amar Akbar Anthony government and invoked the movie's famous song - Amar Akbar and Anthony get together, they can make the impossible possible.

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