Mumbai: The declaration of Rajya Sabha election results in Maharashtra was held up on Friday after the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition parties and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disqualify the votes of certain legislators from each other’s camps on account of alleged rule-breaking during the polling process.
The ECI held up counting for over six hours soon after all 285 legislators finished voting at 4 pm in the Vidhan Sabha, and commission officials reviewed video footage till late Friday evening. The counting had not begun till the time of going to print.
The BJP alleged three MLAs of the ruling MVA parties — cabinet ministers Jitendra Awhad (Nationalist Congress Party) and Yashomati Thakur (Indian National Congress), besides Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande — violated the model code of conduct.
“We have filed an appeal before the Election Commission of India, seeking that their votes be held invalid,” BJP leader Parag Alavani said after a delegation of BJP leaders led by union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi raised objections.
The MVA, in turn, handed a letter signed by Shiv Sena’s Anil Desai, Nationalist Congress Party’s Jayant Patil and Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat, to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking that the votes of senior BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar and independent MLA Ravi Rana, who supported the BJP candidate in Friday’s voting, be declared invalid. State Congress president Nana Patole also wrote to the ECI making the same plea.
The MVA claimed that Mungantiwar “compromised” and “vitiated” the voting procedure by “openly displaying his ballot paper to persons other than his own party election agents and/ or violating other procedures.”
The letter also stated that Rana, who supports the BJP, displayed a religious book to influence other voters in violation of election code of conduct. “”Ravi Rana, Independent MLA also compromised and vitiated the voting procedure by openly displaying Hanuman Chalisa, a religious book and sought to influence others voters and/or violated the secrecy of the ballot, while completing his voting procedures, which is grossly violative of laid down rules of election code of conduct.”
The MVA alleged that the returning officer did not take cognisance of the complaint after the objection was raised by Congress election agent and others.
BJP legislators Atul Save and Alavani, in turn, raised objections and demanded three votes of MVA legislator be declared invalid alleging that Awhad and Thakur handed over their ballots to their party agents instead of only showing them the ballots, while Kande showed his ballot to two different agents.
“As per the rules, a legislator has to show the ballot paper to their polling agent, but Jitendra Awhad and Yashomati Thakur gave the ballot paper in the hands of their respective polling agents,” he said.
“Suhas Kande showed his ballot paper to the polling agents of two other parties, which is also against the rules. Therefore, we have written to the returning officer against Awhad, Kande and Yashomati Thakur demanding their votes be made invalid. The entire process is shot on video, it should be looked into which will show the lapse in procedure and a hearing should be taken,” Alavani said.
As per the rules, the legislator is required to mark his preference for the candidates, show the ballot to his or her own party agent and then put it into the ballot box. Voters are not allowed to display their ballot slips to people other than the party’s polling agents as per rules and in 2017, when a controversy has erupted during the election for seats from Gujarat, the ECI had ruled that the vote of candidate who was found to have violated a rule would not be counted.
All parties dismissed the allegations levied against their MLAs and said that the video footage would clarify matters.
“I was standing behind while Jayant Patil was sitting ahead. Does he (Parag Alavani) have eyes at the back of his head to see? Their objection does not matter… It only shows how scared they are [of losing],” Awhad said.
“As soon as they (BJP) came to know that their candidates are going to lose the election battle, they have adopted a strategy of creating confusion. I can say with full confidence that all our four candidates are winning the poll,” Yashomati Thakur said.
Senior BJP leader and former minister Girish Mahajan denied the MVA’s allegations against the party MLAs. “Sudhir Mungantiwar did not hand over the ballot paper to anyone unlike MVA legislators. The camera footage is clear… he just went a few steps ahead and showed it. (The polling agent Chandrashekhar) Bavankule did not touch the ballot paper,” he said.
“This is not a case of the secrecy being violated. There is no rule pertaining to this,” Mahajan said about Rana’s actions.
“A highlight of this election was the way Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray strategised together. They wanted to send a message to the BJP that the MVA was strong as it was on day one and they stood together. Another outcome of the election was that the three parties kept aside their internal differences and worked in tandem in this election. It will have an impact on coming legislative council election as well as the local body polls,” Hemant Desai, political analyst, said.
Number crunching
There are seven candidates in the fray for six RS seats with BJP fielding union minister Piyush Goyal, former minister Anil Bonde and former MP Dhananjay Mahadik while the ruling coalition has fielded MP Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar (Shiv Sena), former union minister Praful Patel (NCP) and Imran Pratapgarhi (Congress).
Based in the strength in the assembly, BJP could easily win two seats, while the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress could win one each. The contest was on the sixth seat. For it, the votes of 29 MLAs —16 from small parties and 13 independents — were crucial.
The MVA has 150 members (excluding two Nationalist Congress Party legislators Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, who are in jail on separate money-laundering charges). It needed at least 14 more votes to win its fourth seat. The BJP has 106 MLAs of its own, and needed 17 more votes to win its third seat.
MVA had fixed a quota of 42 votes for each of its candidates for which they required 168 votes — which they stated they had. Two legislators of the Samajwadi Party, as well as one each of Communist Party of India (M), Peasants and Workers Party, Swabhimani Paksha, Krantikari Shetkari Paksha, Prahar Janshakti Paksha, and eight independents, supported the MVA.
The BJP was supported by the legislators — one each — of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Jansurajya Shakti, as well as five independents.
The voting began at Vidhan Bhavan (the state legislature) in Mumbai at 9am which continued till 4pm. Dattray Bharne from NCP was the first MLA to cast his vote. Half of the legislators polled their votes within two hours and by 1pm around 260 MLAs cast their votes, the officials said.