Rajya Sabha Election 2022: Who is Dhananjay Mahadik? Know all about the Kolhapur leader as he defeats Sena's Sanjay Pawar

BJP's Dhananjay Mahadik has defeated Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar to win the 6th and final Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra in a thrilling contest.

It is a major setback for ruling Shiv Sena which is part of the MVA alliance.

Both BJP candidate Dhananjay Mahadik, who was once with the ruling party, and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar are from Kolhapur.

Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, NCP's Praful Patel, BJP's Piyush Goyal and Anil Bonde and Congress's Imran Pratapgarhi have also won from Maharashtra.

The counting of votes in the Rajya Sabha elections from Maharashtra began after 1 am Saturday following the Election Commission's go-ahead.

Who is Dhanajay Mahadik?

Mahadik is a seasoned politician from Kolhapur, with a huge cooperative network in the sugar and dairy sector

He is also known as Munna Mahadik

In 2004, Mahadik had contested the Lok Sabha election as a candidate of Shiv Sena from Kolhapur against NCP's Sadashivrao Mandlik but lost.

After that, he parted ways with Shiv Sena and joined Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

But NCP did not consider him as the party's candidate for the 2009 Indian general election.

He then unsuccessfully contested the election as an Independent candidate.

He was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-2019) from Kolhapur as an NCP candidate.

He unsuccessfully contested the same seat in the 2019 elections. He lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election against Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Mandalik.

In September 2019 he along with his NCP colleagues joined BJP.