Jolt for Congress in Maha legislative council polls

The Congress on Monday suffered a setback losing two out of three seats it had contested in the biennial elections to Maharashtra Legislative Council, which it fought in alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.

The Congress could retain only the Latur local bodies seat to which Dilip Deshmukh, younger brother of Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, was re-elected for the third time, while lost Chandrapur and Amravati local bodies seats in the polls held on May 25 for six seats.

While retaining Amravati seat, the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated Congress nominee Rahul Pugalia to claim Chandrapur seat as well, which was earlier held by an Independent.

On the other hand, Congress' alliance partner NCP retained Raigad seat and also won Parbhani which, though held by the Congress, was allotted to the NCP in the pre-poll understanding reached between the two parties.

Counting for the Nashik local bodies seat is still in progress, the state electoral office said.

Meanwhile, Congress sources said that certain "differences" at the district-level had led to the party's defeat in Amravati.

"Ajay Navandar, an independent candidate had sought party ticket and was backed by local Congress MLAs in Amravati. However, the party leadership refused to nominate him and instead fielded Aniruddha Deshmukh, the district unit party chief. This led to certain differences at the district level and hence we lost the seat," a source said.