BJP's Amrish Patel wins Maharashtra Legislative Council polls

Veteran politician, social worker and educationalist Amrish Patel of the BJP won the elections to Dhule-Nandurbar Local Body bye-elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Thursday.

A four-time MLA and one-time MLC of Congress, he had last year joined the BJP.

Patel won with a whopping 332 votes against Congressman and Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate Abhijit Patil, who could manage to bag only 98 votes.

Patel is Chancellor of SVKM's NMIMS and President of Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal, a Mumbai-based Educational Trust, which runs several institutions including Mithibai College, Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics, SVKM's NMIMS and Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering.

He is also the founder of Shirpur Education Society.

Patel is also known for his contribution to Shirpur for the implemented irrigation project, started in October 2004, popularly known as the "Shirpur pattern".The nomination process was held in March and polling was to be held on 1 April, however, it was postponed in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile, counting is underway in five seats - Pune Division Graduates’ Constituency, Nagpur Division Graduates’ Constituency, Aurangabad Division Graduates’ Constituency, Amravati Division Teachers’ Constituency, Pune Division Teachers’ Constituency.

According to latest reports, the MVA was leading in four seats and an Independent in one seat.