By-polls: Subhash Desai, 3 others elected to Maharashtra council

Industries minister Subhash Desai, Mahadeo Jankar (RSP) and Vinayak Mete (Shivasangram) and BJP women's wing chief Smitatai Wagh were elected unopposed to the state legislative council in the by-polls for the four seats in the upper house.

Why RPI (A) and Swabhimaani Paksha unhappy?
However, Dalit leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ramdas Athavale's RPI (A) and farmer leader and Lok Sabha MP Raju Shetti's Swabhimaani Paksha (SP) are miffed by the fact that their nominees have not been accommodated.

Why by-polls were necessitated?
The by-polls had been necessitated by the election of former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Ashish Shelar and education minister Vinod Tawade (both BJP) to the state legislative assembly. Mete, who was an NCP MLC, had been disqualified after his outfit Shivasangram shifted loyalties to the BJP.

The Shiv Sena had to accommodate senior leader Desai, who faced a shock defeat from his pocket borough Goregaon at the hands of the BJP's Vidya Thakur, but was inducted into the cabinet. While the names of party spokespersons Madhav Bhandari and Shaina NC were doing the rounds, the BJP selected Wagh, who is a supporter of revenue minister Eknath Khadse and a former chief of the Jalgaon zilla parishad. Mete was renominated while Jankar, who heads the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) and has a base in the dhangar (shepherd) community, was chosen. The Congress and NCP did not put up their candidates.

Who was the frontrunner?
SP leader Sadabhau Khot, who had lost narrowly to former deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil of the NCP from the Madha constituency and was the front runner from his party for the MLC seat, did not mince his words when it came to expressing his anger at the BJP.

"Who has not betrayed the farmer till now? There is nothing new in this," said Khot, adding that the party had no immediate plans to snap its ties with the BJP. Khot said, however, the party's state executive would discuss the issue in its meeting in February.

Smaller parties didn't get their due?
Incidentally, the four saffron allies — Athavale, Shetti, Jankar and Mete — had thrown in their lot with the BJP when the later split from the Shiv Sena just before the assembly elections. However, barring the SP's Rahul Kul (Daund-Pune), none of these smaller parties could get their nominees elected on their party symbols.