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Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Praful Patel and Congress’s Imran Pratapgarhi also won in this election.
Of the 284 valid votes, Goyal polled 48, Bonde 48, Mahadik 41.56, Raut 41, Pratapgarhi 44 and Patel 43.
The BJP had fielded former MP Dhananjay Mahadik for the sixth seat and the Shiv Sena’s candidate was Sanjay Pawar, who lost. Mahadik and Pawar are residents of Kolhapur in western Maharashtra.
The high-stakes battle for the sixth turned out to be a nail-biting affair with the Congress and the BJP approaching the Election Commission with business allegations.
“Elections are fought not just for the fight but for the victory. Jai Maharashtra,” tweeted BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, whose denial of being a unanimous candidate for the Rajya Sabha went to polls in the state after 24 years.
The counting of votes began after a delay of eight hours amid complaints of cross voting and violation of rules by the BJP and the ruling coalition.
Both BJP and Shiv Sena approached the Election Commission alleging cross voting and seeking disqualification of votes.
The counting of votes began after 1 am after the poll panel directed the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha Election Returning Officer to reject the vote cast by Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande. The first result came in two hours.
After a shocking setback, Congress leaders acknowledged deficiencies in coordination in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat told reporters at Vidhan Bhavan that it is a matter of study what went wrong.
BJP was clever in invalidating a vote by stalling the counting of votes. We were confident that all four of our candidates would win comfortably, the Congress leader said.
Congress’ winning candidate Imran Pratapgarhi said he was happy with his victory but the defeat of Shiv Sena candidate Sanjay Pawar was unfortunate.
NCP leader Praful Patel said he will continue to ensure that Maharashtra’s concerns are heard and addressed.
Many thanks to all my supporters and well wishers for choosing me to serve as the Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He tweeted that I express my heartfelt gratitude to Hon’ble Pawar sahib and NCP for handing over this responsibility to me.
I am humbled by your support, and I want to assure you that I will continue to work day and night to ensure that your and my concerns for the State of Maharashtra are heard and addressed.
Raut blamed the poll panel for the defeat of the fourth MVA candidate.
One of our votes was invalidated by the Election Commission. We protested for two votes but no action was taken on that demand. Raut said the Election Commission supported them (BJP).
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