Mumbai: A day after his party lost a seat in the Rajya Sabha election, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut alleged that the union home ministry interfered in the election commission’s work to make Shiv Sena lawmaker’s vote invalid. Raut also said that if they have agencies like the enforcement directorate then they can even make the leader of the opposition and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis vote for Shiv Sena.
“Had no intention to insult any MLA, they know and BJP also knows what I meant. Even Devendra Fadnavis (leader of opposition in the state Assembly) will cast his vote to Shiv Sena if we are in charge of the enforcement directorate for two days,” Raut said, making allegations against both BJP and the central investigation agency.
Shiv Sena and other allies of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have multiple times alleged that the BJP-led central government is misusing central agencies against opposition leaders.
Raut said, “Election commission and BJP together defeated Ajay Maken (Congress candidate) in Haryana. In Maharashtra, we know what BJP leaders were doing late at night along with the Election Commission. We have all the information; phone calls were made to the election body (officials) to discuss who’s vote be made invalid. We also have agencies but not ED. If we get to handle it for 48 hours then BJP will also vote for Sena,” the newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP said on Sunday.
In the fiercely contested polls for the total six seats on Friday, Sena’s Sanjay Pawar lost to BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik — its third nominee. Other Maha Vikas Aghadi partners – the NCP and the Congress won one seat each.
The counting of votes in Maharashtra was not taken up for nine hours as the Election Commission looked into complaints of the violation of rules — first by BJP and then MVA — against MLAs from rival camps. Later, it directed returning officer to declare Sena MLA Suhas Kande’s vote invalid.
Meanwhile, Swabhimani Paksha MLA Devendra Bhuyar objected to Raut’s allegations that he was one of the MLAs who didn’t vote for the MVA. Bhuyar met NCP chief Sharad Pawar to express his discontent. He will also be meeting with the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on the issue. Pawar told him that Raut made that statement owing to a misunderstanding, he said after meeting the veteran leader in Mumbai.
“The remarks were named to defame me. Did not meet CM Thackeray in the last two and half years (of the MVA government) but will meet him now. If you don’t want to grant funds for development works then don’t call us to seek our votes,” Bhuyar said, expressing his discontent against MVA and CM Thackeray. He, however, added that he will remain with MVA even in future.
Bachchu Kadu, chief of Prahar Janashakti Paksha, an ally of MVA, also said that the coalition’s strategy failed and the independent MLAs cannot be held responsible for the outcome of the Rajya Sabha polls.
“One cannot blame all the independent MLAs for the outcome. The strategy of the MVA for the RS polls also failed. There was no proper coordination, if they had proper coordination then Sanjay Pawar (Shiv Sena candidate) would not have lost the elections,” Kadu said in Amravati on Sunday.
Despite having more votes, the ruling coalition MVA lost the Rajya Sabha elections after which Raut blamed a few independent MLAs and Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) for voting against them.