MUMBAI: Voting for six seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council biennial elections from local bodies constituencies was held today, for which major parties in the state were in a seat-sharing agreement.
The election was necessitated as three members of the NCP, two of the BJP, and one of the Congress, are retiring from the Upper House of the state legislature on June 21.
The contest for Osmanabad-Beed-Latur seat was watched keenly as it was viewed as a battle of prestige between Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde (BJP) and her cousin Dhananjay Munde (NCP), Leader of Opposition in the Council.
Polling was also held for Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Nasik, Prabhani-Hingoli, Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli and Amaravati seats.
The counting of votes will be held on May 24.
The ruling BJP and Shiv Sena contested three seats each.
The Sena contested Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Nasik and Parbhani-Hingoli seats.
The battle for Osmanabad-Latur-Beed seat became interesting after Ramesh Karad of NCP pulled out of the poll arena at the last minute.
Karad, a staunch supporter of Pankaja Munde, had joined the NCP just ahead of the polls and was immediately declared the party candidate.
After Karad's withdrawal, the NCP extended its support to independent candidate Ashok Jagdale.
BJP fielded former NCP minister Suresh Dhas for this bypoll.
Dhas told reporters after the polling that he was confident of victory.
In the Parbhani-Hingoli local authorities constituency BJP rebel Suresh Nangare was in the fray, along with Shiv Sena's Viplav Bajoria and Congress' Suresh Deshmukh.
BJP's Rajya Sabha member and former chief minister Narayan Rane declared his support to NCP candidate Aniket Tatkare in the Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg local authorities constituency, against Sena's Rajeev Sabale.
Pravin Pote, Minister of State for Industries, contested from Amaravati constituency against Anil Madhogaria of the Congress.