MUMBAI, June 5 -- After a week of high-stakes conflict in the ruling Mahayuti, marked by rebellion followed by hectic negotiations to stem dissent, the run-up to the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections hit a dramatic climax on Thursday, the last day for withdrawal of nominations, as several opposition candidates pulled out of the fray, amid allegations of exchange of cash and promise of future political gains, resulting in six Mahayuti candidates being elected unopposed. The MVA, which had struggled to field candidates for all 17 council seats, suffered a major setback on the final day of withdrawals. Candidates of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) withdrew from at least eight constituencies, effectively handing out easy victories to the Mahayuti nominees. In two constituencies, opposition parties were compelled to extend support to independents or rebels as a face-saving measure, such as Aurangabad-Jalna and Bhandara-Gondia. The most dramatic withdrawal took place in Konkan, where Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Bal Mane backed out of the race in the presence of fisheries minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane, paving the way for NCP state president Sunil Tatkare's son, Aniket Tatkare. Similarly, Sena (UBT) candidate Devyani Dongaonkar pulled out from the Aurangabad-Jalna constituency without keeping the party leadership in the loop. Mane, Dongaonkar and her husband Krishna Dongaonkar were subsequently expelled from the party. Congress, on the other hand, faced embarrassment in Bhandara-Gondia, Yavatmal, Nanded and Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli constituencies after its official candidates withdrew. In Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli, Shailesh Agrawal backed out, blaming the ruling alliance of distributing large sums of money to corporators, aided by Congress leaders. "There is no room for democracy anymore if money is distributed with such impunity. Unfortunately, some leaders from my own party were involved. I cannot cheat tribals and poor voters by being a part of this game," Agrawal said. His withdrawal resulted in BJP candidate Arun Lakhani being elected unopposed. Others who backed out were Congress's Dilip Bansod (Bhandara-Gondia), Ramdas Sukhatankar (Nanded) and Sahebrao Kamble (Yavatmal), and NCP (SP) candidates Abhijit Pawar from Thane and Shrikant Patil from Pune. In Ahmednagar, BJP's Prajakt Tanpure was elected unopposed after independent candidate Dattatreya Pansare withdrew his nomination. However, Pansare claimed that the someone else had submitted his withdrawal papers - a claim that was rejected by the returning officer. "At least Rs.25 crore was paid to key candidates to withdraw from the contest. One such deal took place at the Sofitel Hotel in Mumbai, following which a candidate in Raigad withdrew. One of our candidates in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar also withdrew following similar transactions," alleged Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut. BJP vice president Keshav Upadhye retorted, saying: "The opposition is in a hopeless state of affairs. They could not find the candidates in most of the constituencies, and are blaming us for their failures."...