Mumbai: The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government got a rude jolt as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday secured the win of its additional candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra.
Elections were held for six vacancies, with seven candidates were in fray, including three from BJP, two from Shiv Sena, and one each from Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The victories of MVA candidates were made easy by two AIMIM MLAs - Mufti Ismael of Malegaon and Farooq Shah of Dhule, deciding to vote for the ruling alliance.
All the BJP candidates -- Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik have won the Rajya Sabha elections.
The victors from the MVA are -- Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Praful Patel (NCP) and Imran Pratapgarhi (Congress).
The Sena's second candidate, Sanjay Pawar, lost the polls, stunning the MVA, in the results that were declared around 4 a.m.
From the beginning, it was clear that the battle was between Mahadik, a former Kolhapur MP and Pawar, the Shiv Sena District President from Kolhapur.
"We never fought the election for the sake of contest but to win it," said the Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, who ensured BJP's win.
Raut said that certain expected votes did not fall in the MVA's favour, due to some reasons that led to the Sena candidate's loss.
"We had predicted that all the four MVA candidates would win. What went wrong will surely be studied, and analysed," said Congress Legislature Party leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat.
He also accused the election commission of favouring the BJP.
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