MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Thursday retained the Mumbai Graduates' constituency in the Maharashtra Legislative Council with party nominee Vilas Potnis defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Ameetkumar Mehta by 11,562 votes. The Sena has held the seat since 1985.
Potnis garnered 19,354 votes against Mehta's 7,792 while Rajendra Korde, of the Peasants and Workers Party, polled 1,133 votes. Korde was supported by the Congress-NCP combine. 52.81 per cent of the 70,513 voters had exercised their franchise in the polls. The seat was held by Maharashtra Health Minister Deepak Sawant but the Sena, on June 4 this year, decided not to renominate him.
Along with the Mumbai Graduates' MLC seat, polling was also held for Mumbai Teachers', Nashik Teachers' and Konkan Graduates' constituencies on June 25. The counting for all four seats was held on Thursday.
The Mumbai teachers' constituency was won by Lok Bharati Party leader Kapil Patil. BJP's Niranjan Davkhare bagged the Konkan graduates' constituency by a margin of 5,000-odd votes against Shiv Sena leader Sanjay More.
The elections were necessitated as the terms of Sena leader Deepak Sawant (Mumbai Graduates), Lok Bharati Party leader Kapil Patil (Mumbai Teachers), Davkhare (Konkan Graduates) and Apoorva Hire, an Independent (Nashik Teachers), are due to end on July 7.
