Mumbai/Chandigarh, June 11: In a major setback to Maharashtra’s ruling alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, the BJP today won three of the six Rajya Sabha seats, while the ruling combine questioned the eight-hour delay in counting of votes.
The BJP winners include Union Minister Piyush Goyal and former State Minister Anil Bonde, and Dhananjay Mahadik. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Praful Patel and Congress’ Imran Pratapgarhi also won the fiercely-fought elections. Of the 284 valid votes, Goyal polled 48, Bonde 48, Mahadik 41.56, Raut 41, Pratapgarhi 44 and Patel 43.
The contest was for the sixth seat — the BJP had fielded former MP Dhananjay Mahadik and the Shiv Sena candidate was Sanjay Pawar, who lost. Mahadik and Pawar hail from Kolhapur in western Maharashtra. The high-stake battle for the sixth turned out to be a nail-biting affair with the Congress and BJP trading charges, even approaching the Election Commission.
“Elections are contested not just for the fight, but the victory. Jai Maharashtra,” tweeted BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, whose refusal to have a consensus candidate for the Rajya Sabha led to elections in the State after 24 years.
Meanwhile, in a jolt to the Congress, the BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar and the saffron party-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma were declared elected for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, after a high drama over allegations of violations of polling rules that delayed the counting by more than seven hours.
The counting of votes began past midnight and the results were announced after 2 am today.
According to Election Commission officials, Congress candidates Ajay Maken did not get enough votes. The party said one of its MLAs cross-voted while the vote of an MLA was declared invalid.
Returning Officer R K Nandal said Panwar got 36 votes, while Sharma got 23 first preference votes and 6.6 transferred from the BJP, taking his tally to 29.6. It was a photo-finish as Maken got 29 votes, but lost on account of no second preference votes.
While the value of votes polled by the BJP was 3,600, securing the first seat for Panwar, Sharma won the second seat with a vote value of 2,960, including 660 that got transferred from the BJP candidate as second preference votes. The Congress’ value of votes was 2,900.
Congress MLA and the party’s authorised polling agent BB Batra said while the vote of a party MLA was declared invalid, MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi cross-voted for Sharma, a media baron who had entered the poll as an Independent candidate supported by the BJP and its ally JJP. (PTI)
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