After Rajya Sabha polls, Devendra Fadnavis to drop another 'bomb' on June 20: Maha BJP chief on MLC elections

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Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil on Thursday said senior party leader Devendra Fadnavis showed his calibre in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls in the state and would drop another "bomb" on June 20 to ensure the party's win in the Legislative Council elections.

For the next week's polls to the 10 seats of the legislative council, the BJP has fielded five candidates, while the three Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents - Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress - have nominated two candidates each.

Talking to reporters here, Patil said, "Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis will drop another bomb on June 20 as the BJP is going to win all five seats in the Upper House of the state legislature. He has already shown his calibre in the Rajya Sabha elections by winning all the three seats the party had contested."

One candidate needs the votes of at least 27 MLAs to get elected to the legislative council.

The BJP has 106 MLAs, however, it managed to gain the support of 123 MLAs during the Rajya Sabha elections. For the party to win the fifth seat, it needs almost 29 votes of independent MLAs and those belonging to smaller parties.

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When asked about it, Patil said, "We are sure that we will win the fifth seat for MLC. We have enough votes to sail through the situation and we will also win as Fadnavis is there."

Unlike the Rajya Sabha polls, where MLAs were required to show their ballot paper to their respective party's authorised representative after casting vote, the legislative council elections will be held through secret ballot, giving rise to apprehensions of crossing-voting and independents and smaller parties switching allegiance.

The BJP has renominated outgoing MLCs Prasad Lad and Pravin Darekar, and also given tickets to Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre and Shrikant Bharatiya.

The Congress has fielded Mumbai Congress chief Bhai Jagtap and former minister Chandrakant Handore.

The NCP has fielded Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, the current Chairman of the Legislative Council, and former minister Eknath Khadse, while the Shiv Sena has nominated Sachin Ahir and Amshya Padvi, a party functionary from the tribal-dominated Nandurbar district.

Voting to the Upper House of the state legislature comes days after the Rajya Sabha elections where the BJP ensured a stunning victory for its third candidate Dhananjay Mahadik, upsetting the game plan of the Shiv Sena, whose candidate Sanjay Pawar lost in the June 10 polls.

Elections have been necessitated as 10 members of the Council are retiring.

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