Council polls: BJP, Cong get drubbing in UP, Maharashtra

After wresting two Assembly seats held earlier by the BSP, UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav dealt a major blow to the BJP today as resu...

After wresting two Assembly seats held earlier by the BSP, UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav dealt a major blow to the BJP today as results of polls to the 36 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats came out. The Samajwadi Party won 27 of the total seats that went to polls on December 1.

	Karnataka: Cong takes lion’s share

			BANGALORE: Though the ruling Congress won 20 out of the 23 seats it contested in the December 1 elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council, it suffered a setback in the defeat of MoS for Civil Aviation and Infrastructure Development T John. The BJP, suffered a miserable defeat in the hustings though it contested eleven seats. (ENS)

The BJP could win only two seats. Apart from the SP and the BJP, the RLD won three seats, RKP bagged two and the Congress could win just one. An Independent won the remaining seat. For Aligarh segment, Mulayam withdrew his candidate in favour of ally RKP’s candidate. But Kalyan Singh’s supporter lost to the same SP candidate who rebelled against Mulayam’s decision and contested.

‘‘In these elections, the government of the day wins the maximum seats .We had been alleging that the official machinery was being misused on a large scale to ensure victory to the SP nominees and the results have proved us true,’’ state BJP chief Vinay Katiyar said. Village heads, corporators and chairmen of corporations form the electoral college for elections to the Council. With today’s massive tally favouring SP, the party has got a numerical superiority in the Assembly and also the Council.

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			EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI/NAGPUR, DECEMBER 3 Factionalism and constant infighting have cost the Congress crucial seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The Shiv Sena-BJP combine have won four of the five Council seats for which results were declared today. While both the Sena and BJP won two seats each, the Congress could only retain the Ahmednagar seat. Cross-voting and the power tussle between factions headed by Congress MP Sunil Dutt and Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Gurudas Kamat cost the party the Mumbai local self-government body seat. Dutt’s candidate Kamruddin Merchant, vehemently opposed by the Kamat faction, came in third while the Sena’s Arvind Sawant was declared the winner. BJP’s Madhu Chavan won the other seat from Mumbai. Eight seats fell vacant when members retired. Of these, fresh candidates were elected unopposed to three seats. In Nagpur, the differences between the Congress and NCP also got obvious when the former lost out to BJP’s Sagar Meghe. The contest there had become interesting in view of the rifts within both the alliances. The fifth seat for Akola-Washim was won by Gopikrishna Bijoria (Sena) who defeated Lata Ingole of NCP.

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