Gains for ruling combine in Maha council elections

Maharashtra State Revenue Minister Narayan Rane once again proved his clout over Shiv Sena MLAs by persuading them to vote for Congress candidates during the crucial elections to the state legislative council. Rane's close confidant, Rajan Teli, won the election by securing the highest votes.

However, in the game of political one-upmanship, the alliance lost a seat with NCP's fourth candidate Vasant Oswal's defeat.

There were 13 candidates in the ring for 11 legislative council seats, to be elected by the members of state legislative assemblies.

Teli won the election in style with the highest first preference votes (29) as did Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh loyalist Ulhas Pawar, when he required only 25 in the first round. Among those who lost was Shiv Sena's Vijay Loke.

Loke and Oswal's defeat has come as a big shock to the Sena and NCP. It was always understood that the Congress and NCP could get three members each on their own strength and the Shiv Sena-BJP combine would get two each on their strength. The 11th candidate would get elected on the basis of the extra votes that each party has.

However, the ruling Congress-NCP combine did not reach an agreement and each party fielded four candidates each. The election was made even more curious with the entry of Peasants and Worker's Party candidate, Jayant Patil.

Those who got elected include Pawar, Teli, Govind Adik, SQ Jama (Congress), Arun Gujrati, Usha Darode (NCP), Preetam Shegaonkar (NCP backed RPI candidate ), Pasha Patel and Keshav Mankar (BJP), Parshuram Uparkar (Sena) and Patil (PWP).