Mahayuti, led by Eknath Shinde, wins nine out of eleven seats in the Maharashtra council elections

The ruling Mahayuti alliance, consisting of the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), and NCP (Ajit Pawar), in Maharashtra has secured a decisive victory by winning all nine seats it contested in the biennial elections. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) managed to win two seats. 

The counting of votes for the high-stakes biennial election to 11 council seats in Maharashtra concluded with the Mahayuti alliance bagging all the nine seats it contested. From the opposition MVA, Milind Narvekar, a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and Congress candidate Pradnya Satav emerged victorious.

In detail, the BJP won five seats, while the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) secured two seats each. The voting took place at the Vidhan Bhavan complex in South Mumbai between 9 am and 4 pm, despite opposition parties requesting an extension of polling hours due to heavy rains in the city.

A total of 12 candidates contested for the 11 seats in the Upper House of the state legislature, with the 274 current members of the Legislative Assembly forming the electoral college.

Among the ten candidates who won the Maharashtra MLC elections from the BJP are Pankaja Munde, Parinay Phuke, Amit Gorkhe, Yogesh Tilekar, and Sadabhav Khot. Munde, Phuke, and Tilekar each secured victory with 26 votes, surpassing the winning margin of 23 votes required in council elections. 

Two MLCs from Ajit Pawar's party, Rajesh Vitekar and Shivajirao Garje, also won the elections, while Bhavana Gawli from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena secured an easy win. However, Jayant Patil, the Peasants and Workers' Party (PWP) candidate supported by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), lost the polls.

The election was necessitated as 11 members of the legislative council (MLCs) are completing their six-year term on July 27.