Maharashtra MLC Election Results: BJP corners Shinde over anti-Mahayuti leaders after loss to MVA

The BJP on Friday demanded that Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde take strict disciplinary action against Shiv Sena leaders who, it said, worked against Mahayuti candidates in the legislative council elections. The demand comes amid strained relations within the ruling alliance after the MLC Election Results 2026.

The ruling alliance lost three of the five legislative council seats in the MLC Election 2026. The Congress won Nagpur Graduates’, the BJP’s home turf, by 3,271 votes. The NCP (SP) took both the Pune and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates’ seats, beating the BJP in Pune and the NCP in Sambhajinagar.

The Mahayuti won only the two teachers’ seats: Pune went to the BJP and Amravati to the Shiv Sena. “In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates', Shiv Sena former minister Abdul Sattar worked against NCP candidate Satish Chavan, who lost.

In Pune Graduates, Shiv Sena Pune city chief Ravindra Dhangekar worked against BJP’s Smita Jadhav, who lost. Will Eknath Shinde take action against them?” BJP spokesperson Navnath Ban asked. Ban said the BJP had expelled at least three local leaders for six years for rebelling in the Amravati Teachers constituency poll, but the Shiv Sena had taken no similar action.

“We urge DyCM Eknath Shinde to take strict action against Shiv Sena Pune city chief Ravindra Dhangekar. He openly campaigned and worked against BJP’s Smita Jadhav in Pune Graduates constituency,” he said. Ban said the Sena had also worked against the alliance in the Pune Teachers constituency.

“In Pune teachers, Shiv Sena had fielded Sachin Sanap as an independent against official candidate Kaustubh Gawde. Though BJP won Pune teachers, Shiv Sena had worked against alliance partner,” he said. “Ravindra Dhangekar is a party hopper.

He has already changed a dozen political parties before coming to Shiv Sena. Since he has no electoral base and acceptance in people, he is now targeting BJP,” Ban said. He said Pune voters had never backed Dhangekar’s politics in Lok Sabha, Assembly or corporation polls, and that Dhangekar should introspect.

Responding to Dhangekar’s criticism of him, Ban said Dhangekar should look to his own standing in his party. “I have remain loyal BJP. I started career as ABVP student wing of party. I worked in media. I won Corporation polls.

I am state BJP spokesperson and serve organization,” he said. Ban asked whether the Shiv Sena endorsed Dhangekar’s accusation of extortion against a BJP candidate. If it did not, he said, it should act against him. The BJP has blamed the Shiv Sena for the Pune defeat but has said little about its own organisation.

Party leaders have attributed the loss in Nagpur to an independent candidate whose second-preference votes, they say, helped the Congress in the MLC Election Results 2026.