Rajya Sabha poll | BJP trumps MVA, secures victory of three candidates

Independents and smaller parties which had earlier pledged allegiance to the MVA seem to have backtracked, and voted for the BJP.

In what turned out to be a day of twists and turns, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trumped over Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) by winning three out six seats in a fiercely contested battle for Rajya Sabha which witnessed a delay of over nine hours to start counting as a result of demands to cancel votes, appeal for the same to the central election commission and micro-management by the BJP which helped it to win this battle of prestige.

The results also show that the BJP has managed to snatch at least nine votes from the MVA. Independents and smaller parties which had earlier pledged allegiance to the MVA seem to have backtracked on the word and voted for the BJP. The results also pave the way for yet another battle on June 20 for the state council polls. A confident BJP is unlikely to go on defensive for the upcoming council polls.

On Friday, 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 41 and the situation turned grave for the MVA with Central Election Commission invalidating one vote of Sena MLA.

Seven candidates were in the fray for six seats from Maharashtra with BJP staking claim on three seats while the MVA had fielded four candidates. The battle for sixth seat was between Sena’s Sanjay Pawar and BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik. In the first round, Imran Pratapgarhi of Congress (44 votes), NCP’s Praful Patel (43), Sena’s Sanjay Raut (42) and BJP’s Piyush Goyal and Anil Bonde (48 votes each) were declared winners.

The quota for the victory was of 41. Mr. Pawar and Mr. Mahadik won 33 and 27 seats respectively of first choice. Mr. Mahadik received seven extra votes each from Mr. Goyal and Mr. Bonde in second round, ensuring his victory.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis who scripted the victory of BJP’s third candidate said that his party had decided to contest the election to win it and not for the sake of contesting.

The result came after Central Election Commission declared vote of Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande as invalid following the complaint made by opposition BJP. This was the fourth vote on which MVA lost. Earlier, court had declined permission to vote to arrested NCP MLAs Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik. Sena MLA Ramesh Latke’s death had reduced Sena’s strength.