Cong steals thunder as Sena falls apart

MUMBAI: The Congress on Thursday out-manoeuvred its alliance partner NCP and Shiv Sena to clinch a major victory in the state legislative council polls that was marred by large-scale cross-voting.

The biggest loser was the Sena. It was humiliated after as many as 20 MLAs cross voted in favour of rivals.
The legislative assembly members voted to elect 11 members from 13 in the ring, to be sent to the upper house.

To get elected, a candidate had to secure a minimum of 25 first preference votes. In the 289-member house, the Congress has 73 members, NCP (71), Shiv Sena (58), BJP (54), Jansurajya party (4), CPM (3), PWP (2), BRP Mahasangh (1), RPI-A (1), Swatantra Bharat Party (1), Akhil Bharatiya Sena (1) along with 19 Independents.

This meant the Congress had a strength to elect just about three members whereas it bagged four seats. On the contrary, the Sena has enough MLAs to have its two candidates elected.

But in the end, it could barely retain one seat. What it implies is that nearly half the Sena members voted for their rivals, thereby ensuring the defeat of their own candidate. It alliance partner, the BJP, was successful in holding all its votes intact. The party had fielded two seats and bagged both.

Along with the Sena, the result will leaver a bitter taste with the NCP as well. The Sharad Pawar led outfit, in a tug of war with the Congress, had fielded the fourth candidate when they had strength for only three. The party has shared its lone seat with the RPI’s Athavale faction. The NCP leadership had expressed confidence to garner enough outside support to see through its fourth candidate.

But it was outsmarted by the Congress, which successfully herded all additional votes from rivals to itself and left nothing for its coalition partner. This development, according to political analysts, is bound to have an adverse impact on an already strained relationship between the Congress and the NCP.

The defeat will be a huge blow to Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership who had personally chosen the party’s second candidate. The die was cast for the Sena, already weakened by a series of electoral defeats and unending onslaught by its friend-turned-foes, even before the polling began on Thursday morning as five of its MLAs defied the party order.

The Sena chief whip Gajanan Kirtikar told media persons just before the election that the party had instructed its five MLAs not to participate in Thursday’s polling, but they defied the whip and exercised their votes. All these MLAs have expressed their allegiance to Narayan Rane.

The ‘successful’ candidates in Thursday’s election are Ulhas Pawar, Govindrao Adik, SQ Jama and Rajan Teli (all Congress), Arun Gujarathi and Usha Darode (NCP) and Preetamkumar Shegaonkar of RPI-A, Pasha Patel and Keshavrao Mankar (both BJP), Parshuram Uparkar (Sena) and Jayant Patil (Peasants and Workers’ Party of India).

The party’s decision to issue show-cause notices to these five — R Raut, Vijay Vadettiwar, Ashok Kale, Prakash Bharsakhale and Jaywant Jagtap for defying the whip, hardly had any impact on them as all of them supported the rivals.

On the other hand, revenue minister Narayan Rane objected to Sena’s action of issuing show-cause notices to its MLAs. He expressed confidence that all four Congress candidates would win Thursday’s poll despite the Congress falling one short of its total strength.

Former Maharashtra minister Surupsinh Naik, sentenced to one month’s imprisonment in a contempt case, was not allowed to participate in the polling. The Election Commission authorities pointed out a clause in the Representative of People’s Act that disallows members in the police or judicial custody from casting their vote.

The ‘successful’ candidates in Thursday’s election are Ulhas Pawar, Govindrao Adik, SQ Jama and Rajan Teli (all Congress), Arun Gujarathi and Usha Darode (NCP) and Preetamkumar Shegaonkar of RPI-A, Pasha Patel and Keshavrao Mankar (both BJP), Parshuram Uparkar (Shiv Sena) and Jayant Patil (Peasants and Workers’ Party of India).