Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant on Friday tweeted a video clip of the film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar while the counting of votes was halted in the state.
Screengrab from video posted by Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant on Friday evening tweeted a video clip of the film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and captioned it, “Current Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra; BJP+agencies vs MVA.” His tweet comes at a time when the counting of votes in the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha elections has come to a standstill after protests by several parties. The counting of votes was to begin at 5 pm today.
Current Rajya Sabha Elections in Maharashtra
BJP + Agencies Vs MVA pic.twitter.com/1DNAex82nt— Sachin Sawant (@sachin_inc) 10 June 2022
timeline of events
Seven candidates were contesting on six seats in the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha elections. The focus was on the battle between the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance and the opposition BJP.
For the six seats, 287 MLAs were to vote. Till 1 pm, 260 MLAs had cast their vote for the election.
An hour later, it was reported that the BJP objected to the three MVA votes. Three votes went to Yashomati Thakur of Congress, Jitendra Awhad of NCP and Suhas Kande of Shiv Sena. The BJP had requested the Returning Officer (RO) to declare their votes invalid.
BJP’s Parag Lalavani said the objections were raised because the two MLAs violated the rules by giving their ballot papers to the polling agents of their parties. Soon after, a delegation of BJP reached the Election Commission in Delhi to complain about the violation of confidentiality during voting. He demanded that the counting of votes be stopped for violation of the election process.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi had also written a letter to the Election Commissioner stating that BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar “compromised and violated the voting process by showing his ballot papers to people other than his party’s agents”. It also said that MLA Ravi Rana performed Hanuman Chalisa and tried to influence other voters and also displayed his vote. The MHA asked the Election Commission to cancel the votes of both the MLAs.
The Election Commission had then sought video recording of voting in the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra. The Election Commission asked the Returning Officer to send the relevant portion of the video recording footage.
The Election Commission is now looking into the issues and considering taking appropriate steps in the situation.