In what turned out to be a day of twists and turns, the results of the fiercely contested election for six Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra were not declared till the time of writing this report after both ruling party and the Opposition having approached the Central Election Commission with complaints to declare votes of the opponent’s side invalid.
The counting for the election was delayed for hours after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) approached the Central Election Commission against the decision of Returning Officer (RO) in Maharashtra, who refused to cancel the votes of three MLAs of the MVA on a complaint by the BJP. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) too, by late evening approached Delhi, taking objection against voting of BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar and BJP-affiliated-independent MLA Ravi Rana over identical reasons.
Seven candidates are in the fray for six seats from Maharashtra with BJP staking claim on three seats while the MVA fielded four candidates. The battle for the sixth seat is between Sena’s Sanjay Pawar and BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik.
BJP MLAs Parag Alvani and Atul Save, who were the party’s polling agents inside the polling center, had objected that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad, Congress MLA Yashomati Thakur and Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande violated the polling procedure by displaying ballot papers to persons other than their own party election agents. The RO however had rejected the BJP’s objection in the afternoon.
“We will approach the Central Election Commission as the RO did not even hold the hearing of our complaint,” Mr. Alvani had said. The party’s complaint to CEC delayed the start of the counting of votes by more than two hours. Congress MLA and minister Aslam Sheikh, speaking to reporters said that the BJP’s action of approaching Delhi was nothing but out of fear of losing. He said that the MVA too has filed a complaint with the CEC.
MVA suffered a shock after the court refused to grant permission to two of the jailed MLAs of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), namely Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh, to vote for the election. With death of one of the Sena MLAs, the ruling MVA was already facing the tough task of achieving the quota of 42.
Earlier in the day, all four parties ensured that the MLAs who had been kept at the hotels and resorts for last three days were brought to the legislative building in specially arranged buses. NCP MLA Dattatraya Bharne was the first voter and as per the strategy, all three parties of the MVA voted turnwise.
Two ailing BJP MLAs, namely Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak, were brought in ambulances to vote. Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), which has three MLAs and had kept cards hidden till today said that they won’t disclose their choice but they have voted for the winning side. “I can only tell you that our votes have gone to the winning side,” said Hitendra Thakur, BVA MLA.
