The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trounced the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra by winning three out six seats in a fiercely contested battle for the Rajya Sabha.
The ruling government’s inability to win four seats is now being blamed on the independents and smaller parties who are believed to have ditched the MVA over the manner of functioning of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The Shiv Sena however has rejected the theory and blamed the loss on horse-trading by the BJP.
Elated by the victory of all three party candidates — Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik — the Leader of Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis advised Mr. Thackeray to introspect on the internal fraction in the MVA. “Some MLAs who had earlier supported MVA came to us and requested not to withdraw our third candidate. They told us that they wanted to show their power to the CM,” Mr. Fadnavis said at a press conference on Saturday.
