Nagpur: Maharashtra’s five Legislative Council seats reserved for graduates and teachers head into polls against a political landscape markedly different from 2020, when Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena were constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi govt led by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
MVA was formed after the 2019 Assembly election, bringing together Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP. The arrangement ended in June 2022 after a Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde allied with BJP. In July 2023, Ajit Pawar and a group of NCP legislators joined the BJP-Shiv Sena govt. The arrangement ended in June 2022 after Shinde led a rebellion in Shiv Sena and joined BJP. For the opposition, the challenge is similarly different from 2020: Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) are no longer operating from the common governing platform they shared during the previous Council election.
Former MLC Anil Sole, who represented the Nagpur graduates’ constituency, said he has staked his claim for the seat this time. We have an advantage as Shiv Sena led by Shinde and NCP led by Sunetra Pawar are also with us this time,” Sole told TOI. Congress’ Baban Taywade, who previously contested from the graduates’ constituency against Union minister Nitin Gadkari, said BJP could derive some benefit from being in office but argued that the candidate and voter-registration figures would be crucial.
The change is most evident in the alliances. The two splits have since redrawn the organisational map through which the parties approach elections. For the Council polls, however, the broader alliance structure is only one factor. Graduate and teachers’ constituencies have specialised electorates, making voter registration, candidate selection, local networks and sustained outreach important to individual contests. “It is up to the party seniors to decide.
The constituency had earlier been represented by Gadkari and Gangadharrao Fadnavis, father of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis .