NCP, BJP, Sena jubiliant; Cong sulks as Bajaj rides into RS

Mumbai, June 15 (UNI) Maker of two and three-wheeler Rahul Bajaj today rode to the Upper House of the Parliament on the support of three parties namely NCP, BJP and Sena, by getting 195 votes in the by election, while Congress candidate Avinash Pande got 90 votes.

The election was necessitated due to the death of Pramod Mahajan.

Shiv Sena and BJP, the two allied opposition parties, and NCP, the ruling party supported the 67-year-old industrialist having Congress background as an independent candidate.

The effective strength of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was 288 and the party position in the House was as follows: Congress 73, NCP 71, BJP 54, Sena 58, Ind 19, RPI(A), BMS, ABS, Swatantra Bharat Party one each, CPI(M) 3, PWP 2, JSS four.

While one Sena MLA Gulabrao Gawande could not turn up for voting in the scheduled time as his flight was delayed. Two legislators of RPI (A) and BMS did not come for voting reportedly protesting against the anti-reservation statements of Mr Bajaj.

With the NCP supporting Mr Bajaj, tension had erupted between the NCP and its ally Congress. The Congress has accused Mr Bajaj of being anti-dalit, for his opposition to the reservation, while a similar charge has been levelled by the NCP against the Congress candidate Mr Pande, accusing him of beating a dalit officer in Nagpur.

Though, a massive cross voting took place from Shiv Sena in the recently concluded Legislative Council elections which resulted in the defeat of one Sena's candidates; this time no such incident was reported as it was mandatory for all the MLAs to show their voting slip to the party observers sitting inside the voting hall.

Sena had also issued a three line whip asking all the MLAs to vote in favour of Mr Bajaj.

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