RS polls in Maha: Swabhimani Paksha MLA Bhuyar says he voted in favour of Shiv Sena

Nagpur, Jun 12 ( PTI) Swambhimani Paksha MLA Devendra Bhuyar on Sunday claimed he voted for the Shiv Sena in the recent Rajya Sabha polls to six seats from Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena's second nominee Sanjay Pawar lost the bitter contest on Friday to the BJP.

On Saturday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said three MLAs of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), an independent MLA from Karmala Sanjaymama Shinde, Swabhimani Paksha MLA Devendra Bhuyar, and PWP MLA Shyamsunder Shinde did not vote for the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA-comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress), despite assuring to do so.

Raut said they had taken note of this development and that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was distressed over the defeat of Sanjay Pawar. Talking to a TV channel at the Nagpur airport on Sunday, Bhuyar said it was wrong on Sanjay Raut's part not to trust him. ''I had openly told the media that I voted for Sanjay Pawar and Sanjay Raut,'' he said. Bhuyar said if he had been a Sena MLA and not voted for the party, then he could have been called 'gaddaar' (traitor). The legislator claimed he is close to NCP leaders Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil and voted for the Shiv Sena as per their directions. To a query, he claimed the Shiv Sena candidate got defeated due to lack of coordination by the party. Bhuyar said he will reach Mumbai on Sunday and meet Sharad Pawar to convey that it was wrong on part of Raut not to trust him. ''I am with the MVA from the very beginning. Sanjay Raut is a big leader, but before levelling such allegations, he should have discussed the issue with us or could have enquired about the issue,'' he said.

The bitter contest on Friday saw three candidates of the BJP - Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik - winning the polls. The Sena (Raut), NCP (Praful Patel) and Congress (Imran Pratapgarhi) won one seat each.

Of the 284 valid votes, Goyal polled 48, Bonde 48, Mahadik 41.56, Raut 41, Pratapgarhi 44 and Patel 43.

The 288-member Legislative Assembly constituted the electoral college for the elections. But the total votes came down to 285 since there was a vacancy due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke, and a court rejecting the pleas filed by minister Nawab Malik and former minister Anil Deshmukh seeking a day's bail to vote in the elections.

Both the BJP and the Shiv Sena had approached the Election Commission, alleging breach of election rules and seeking disqualification of votes.

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