Council polls: Mahayuti wins all 9 seats it contested; MVA bags 2 with Uddhav aide getting place
Mumbai, Jul 12: The ruling Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra on Friday won all the nine seats it contested in the biennial elections to 11 seats for the state legislative council.
In the results announced in the evening for the polls conducted earlier in the day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won five seats, while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bagged two each.
From the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Milind Narvekar, close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, and Congress candidate Pradnya Satav won the elections.
Peasants and Workers' Party (PWP) candidate Jayant Patil, who was supported by 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.
The 288-member legislative assembly was the electoral college for the polls and its current strength is 274.
Each winning candidate required a quota of 23 first-preference votes.
The BJP is the largest party in the assembly with 103 members, followed by the Shiv Sena (38), NCP (42), Congress (37), Shiv Sena (UBT) 15 and NCP (SP) 10.
The BJP had fielded five candidates - former Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde, Yogesh Tilekar, Parinay Phuke, Amit Gorkhe and Sadabhau Khot, and its ally Shiv Sena two - former Lok Sabha MPs Krupal Tumane and Bhavana Gawali. NCP had given tickets to Shivajirao Garje and Rajesh Vitekar.
The Congress had nominated Satav for another term, while Sena (UBT) had fielded Narvekar.
The third MVA constituent, NCP (SP), did not field its nominee and instead extended support to PWP's Jayant Patil.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
