India News | Maha Rajya Sabha Election: Counting Held Up as EC to Decide on Allegations of Violation of Norms During Voting

Mumbai, Jun 10 (PTI) The counting for election to six Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra was held up for more than six hours on Friday as the BJP questioned the validity of ballots cast by three MLAs of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, alleging that rules were violated. The MVA too sought to invalidate two votes, one by a BJP MLA and another by an Independent. The BJP challenged the votes cast by cabinet ministers Jitendra Awhad (NCP), Yashomati Thakur (Congress) and Sena legislator Suhas Kande. The saffron party alleged 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. "Counting can not be started until the ECI gives its decision because winning quota can not be determined till the number of valid votes is finalized," said a constitutional expert. Against six Rajya Sabha seats, the BJP has fielded three candidates, the Shiv Sena two and NCP and Congress one each. The counting was to start at 5 pm. However, a BJP delegation, including Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Jitendra Singh and Arjun Ram Meghwal, met the EC after the polling process got over to seek a probe and cancellation of three votes.

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In its memorandum to the EC, the BJP noted the commission had stated in the matter involving the election of Congress leader Ahmed Patel in Gujarat in 2017 that the very act of showing the ballot paper to anyone other than the election agent of one's party renders the vote invalid. Following the BJP's representation, the Congress too demanded that the poll panel invalidate the votes of BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar and independent MLA Ravi Rana. State Congress president Nana Patole in a letter to the chief election commissioner claimed that Mungantiwar "vitiated the voting procedure" by showing his ballot paper to persons other than his own party's election agents. Rana openly displayed the Hanuman Chalisa, a religious book, and sought to influence other voters, he alleged. Earlier, all 285 MLAs who were eligible for voting exercised their franchise by 3.30 pm on Friday. The crucial, neck-to-neck contest was necessitated as the BJP fielded three candidates while Shiv Sena put up two and Congress and NCP one each. Thus, there were seven candidates in the fray against six vacancies. The BJP fielded Union Commerce minister Piyush Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde and former MP Dhananjay Mahadik. The Sena fielded Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. The NCP fielded Praful Patel while Congress fielded Imran Pratapgarhi. The quota of first preference votes needed by each candidate to win is 41 as the total number of voters came down to 285 from 288. NCP leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh, currently in jail, were denied one-day bail to vote by the courts. Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke died recently. Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak, both BJP MLAs who are unwell, came to the Vidhan Bhavan in an ambulance, while Mahendra Dalvi, Shiv Sena MLA, came with help of a walker.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)