Cong's 4-seat win silences CM detractors

MUMBAI: Chief minister Ashok Chavan has silenced his detractors in the party as the Congress bagged four of the 10 seats in the legislative council elections on Thursday.While theSharad Pawar-led NCP managed to retain its political turf by winning its quotaof three seats, the Shiv Sena suffered a setback by losing its only seat to theBJP. Sena's Divakar Raote reached the winning post, but Anil Parab was defeatedby the BJP's Shobha Phadanvis in the final round. BJP's Dhananjay Munde,Gopinath Munde's nephew, won by 29 votes.Not only did the Congresswon its three seats, Chavan and MPCC chief Manikrao Thakare strategised to get abonus. A Chavan acolyte, Vijay Sawant, polled 13 first preference votes, whileParab secured 21 first preference. However, thanks to the clever strategydrafted by CM aides, R Vikhe-Patil and H Patil, Sawant secured second preferencevotes of Congress and NCP MLAs, leaving Phadanvis and Parab to fight it out overthe 10th seat.The Congress fielded Sawant as an Independent and themove was a litmus test for Chavan. The CM's rivals had challenged him that theCongress should contest the fourth seat.Those who won the seats inthe upper house are: Sanjay Dutt (30), Dipti Chauhan (30), Hussein Dalwai(28)—from the Congress—and Sawant, an Independent. The NCP's RamrajeNimbalkar got the highest first preference votes (32), while two others whoemerged winners were Vinayak Mete (29) and Prakash Binsale (29). Diwakar Raote(26) of the Sena won, while Parab lost in the elimination process. Both the BJPcandidates, Phadanvis (24) and Dhananjay Munde, won.Irrigationminister Ajit Pawar, architect of NCP's victory, had threatened the Congressthat it would not support the fourth candidate if the latter failed to forceIndependent candidate Kanhaiyalal Gidwani out of the Rajya Sabha fray. NCP stateunit president Madhukar Pichad wrote to the CM, making a request as well. Allthe six candidates were elected unopposed to the RS on Thursday as Gidwaniwithdrew from the fray.Vijay Darda and Avinash Pande (Congress),Tariq Anwar and Ishwarlal Jain (NCP), Piyush Goyal (BJP) and Sanjay Raut (Sena)were elected unopposed to the house of elders. The group of 13 MNS MLAsstayed away from the Vidhan Bhavan and were last to vote.