Describing BJP's victory on three Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra as the "mandate of horsetrading", Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday accused the Election Commission (EC) of siding with the opposition party, which he claimed "put pressure" on the poll panel. Talking to reporters here in the afternoon, Raut who retained his seat, said ,"Some horses were up for sale at a higher price and shifted sides despite assurance of their votes to our candidate."Raut said the defeat of Shiv Sena's second candidate Sanjay Pawar was not a setback. "In fact, Pawar got 33 first preference votes, while BJP's Dhananjay Mahadik got 27. But Mahadik scraped through on the basis of the second and third preference vote," he said.
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Raut said the vote of Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande was disqualified, whereas BJP's two votes were retained even as the same mistake was committed citing which the Sena's vote was invalidated. He said three MLAs of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), an independent MLA from Karmala Sanjaymama Shinde, Swabhimani Party MLA Devendra Bhuyar, PWP MLA Shyamsunder Shinde did not vote for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) despite assuring to do so. "We have taken note of this development," he said adding that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was distressed over the defeat of Sanjay Pawar. ?Earlier in the day, while talking to reporters soon after the results were declared, Raut had said that the BJP's victory was not as huge as it was being made out to be. The top leaders of his party had made a detailed plan for the Rajya Sabha polls to ensure a victory for Pawar, but some MLAs did not vote for them, he said. "The top leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) had also worked hard to ensure victory for Sanjay Pawar," he added. The bitter contest that went to the wire saw three candidates of the BJP - Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and 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.