Maharashtra Congress leader Nana Patole has asserted that party leaders who voted against NDA candidates in the recent elections to 11 assembly seats will be identified and punished. He called them “traitors”. Patole on Saturday alleged that the same “traitors” had ensured the defeat of Congress leader Chandrakant Handre in the assembly elections two years ago.
“This time a trap has been laid and the culprits have been identified. They will be punished so that no one can betray the party again,” Patole said, without naming the leader.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said the Congress accepts that cross-voting has taken place and will act accordingly. “The Central government will observe the imposition of Emergency as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. Is it unconstitutional to allow state legislators who are facing disqualification to elect state legislators? Is it unconstitutional to buy state legislators through bribes? The BJP is the real killer of the Constitution,” Raut alleged.
Maharashtra’s ruling ‘Mahiyuti’ coalition, comprising Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the BJP and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, on Friday won all the nine seats it contested in the biennial elections, bagging 11 seats in the Legislative Assembly.The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a setback as its candidate backed by Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) was defeated.
At least seven MPs defied party instructions and voted for the NCP candidate during the polls. The 37-member Congress had allocated 30 first preference votes to NCP candidate Pradina Satav and the remaining seven votes to ally Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Milind Narvekar, a party source told news agency PTI.
In the end, Satav got 25 first preference votes and Narvekar 22, meaning that at least seven MPs voted against him. Jayant Patil of the Peasant Workers Party (PWP), backed by Sharad Pawar’s New Communist Party (SP), was defeated.
