RS poll results not shocking; no threat to MVA govt: Pawar

Mumbai: After the Bharatiya Janata Party won three out of six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he was not shocked to see the results, and added that his party received one extra vote that came from an Independent legislator, who was tilted towards the opposite side. BJP candidates -- Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik -- won the fiercely contested election conducted on Friday.

The Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, the NCP's Praful Patel and the Congress' Imran Pratapgarhi also emerged victorious. Sanjay Pawar, the Sena's second candidate, lost to the 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) the NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress, they received the votes as per the quota. Only Praful Patel received one extra vote and I know from where it came. That was not the MVA's vote, it was from the opposite side," Pawar told reporters in Pune.

For the sixth seat, contested by the Shiv Sena, he said 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, the BJP and MVA, the number of votes were not sufficient," he said.

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 Devendra Fadnavis succeeded in weaning away Independents and smaller parties who would have supported the MVA, Pawar added. "That is why this gap of votes was there," he said.

The NCP chief said there was no threat to the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government in the state.

"The sixth seat was a risk for the MVA, but Uddhav Thackeray took the risk," he said. "In politics, one has to take risks."—PTI