Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray arrives at Legislative Assembly. (ANI)The counting for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra was abruptly stopped on Friday after both the BJP and the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) objected to votes cast by each other, alleging violation of code of conduct rules.
The BJP urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to declare the votes cast by Jitendra Awadh (NCP), Yashomati Thakur (Congress) and Suhas Kande (Shiv Sena) as invalid. The MVA, on the other hand, also moved the poll body seeking that the votes cast by BJP’s Sudhir Mungantiwar and Independent MLA Ravi Rana be declared invalid.
In its appeal to the EC, the BJP claimed that Awadh, Thakur and Kande had shown their ballot paper to party leaders instead of polling agents, which was against the poll procedure. It also pointed that these candidates had tried to hand over their ballot paper to their party leaders present at the venue, thus, violating rules.
Following this, the MVA made similar charges against Mungantiwar and Ravi Rana for allegedly displaying their ballot papers to non-polling agents.
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In all, there are seven candidates in the fray for six seats. They are Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar, NCP’s Praful Patel, Congress’ Imran Pratapgadi and BJP’s Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik.
The BJP, which is the single largest party with 106 seats in the Assembly, had forced an election after it decided to field Mahadik from Kolhapur as its third candidate.
A senior BJP said, “When Awadh, Thakur and Kande broke polling rules, we raised an alarm and brought it to the notice of the election observer… But Congress and Sena’s objections to Mungantiwar and Rana was an afterthought to settle political scores.”
However, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, tweeted, “The BJP tried to intimidate members with Enforcement Directorate threat. When they failed to do so and realised members voted for MVA, they are using this new tactic to get three members votes invalid votes .”
Senior Minister and Sena leader Eknath Shinde said, “We are all awaiting the EC order. Only then will counting begin.”
Explaining the delay, an officer in the state legislature secretariat said, “As requested, we have provided the video recording on the entire election process to the EC. It will go through the recordings. After receiving the its nod, counting will start.”
To get elected, one candidate needs 42 votes. As the BJP, with 106 MLAs, requires 126 votes to see through its three candidates, it requires an additional 20 votes from smaller parties and Independents.
Similarly, Shiv Sena, with 55 MLAs, requires 84 votes, meaning it needed an additional 29 votes. The Congress with 44 votes and NCP with 53 votes will have no problem to get one candidate each through. They have pledged their surplus votes to the Sena’s sixth candidate.
The smaller parties and Independents, constituting 29 votes, hold the key in determining the fate of the sixth candidate.
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