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RS polls outcome: BJP’s ‘miracle’ worked, says NCP chief Sharad Pawar
BJP candidates – Union minister Piyush Goyal and former state minister Anil Bonde, and Dhananjay Mahadik – won the fiercely contested election
Pune: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said that he was not shocked to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) third nominee winning the Rajya Sabha polls. The NCP chief conceded that the BJP was successful in creating a “miracle” with a third win for its candidate.
BJP candidates – Union minister Piyush Goyal and former state minister Anil Bonde, and Dhananjay Mahadik – won the fiercely contested election conducted on Friday. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Praful Patel and Congress’ Imran Pratapgarhi also came out victorious. Sena’s second candidate Sanjay Pawar lost to BJP’s Mahadik.
“I am not shocked to see the results. If you see the votes polled by every candidate of (Maha Vikas Aghadi allies) NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress, they received the votes as per the quota. Only Praful Patel (of NCP) received one extra vote and I know from where it came. That was not MVA’s vote, it was from the opposite side,” Pawar said in Pune.
Acknowledging former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s ability to garner the support of independent legislators, Pawar said the MVA took the risk to put a fourth candidate but could not bring some independents on its side.
“The MVA made a courageous attempt to win the sixth seat despite falling short of a few numbers, but one has to accept the ‘miracle’ in which BJP leader Fadnavis succeeded in weaning away independents and smaller parties who would have supported the MVA,” Pawar said.
According to Pawar, there was a large gap for MVA to ensure win for its third and fourth candidate. “For the sixth seat, contested by Sena, there was a big gap, but the MVA showed courage and put in efforts. The BJP had more Independent MLAs on their side, but for both, BJP and MVA, the number of votes were insufficient,” he said.
The NCP supremo asserted that the Rajya Sabha poll outcome won’t have any impact on the stability of the MVA government, saying the alliance has “enough numbers” on their side which can be seen through the result.
Pawar confirmed that he will be visiting Delhi on Sunday to hold discussion with Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the upcoming presidential elections.
