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Friday, Jul 15, 2005

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National

Congress nominee elected to Rajya Sabha

Anil Sastry

Wins by a margin of six votes; two votes rejected by the returning officer While Mr. Naik received 20 votes out of the 34 valid votes, BJP candidate Sanjiv Desai got 14

PANAJI: Congress nominee Shantaram Naik was elected to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Goa as expected by a margin of six votes here on Thursday.

The Returning Officer (RO), Sudhir Narvekar, however, was awaiting clearance from the Election Commission of India to officially declare the result.

Two votes, one each from the Congress and the BJP, were rejected by the RO.

While Mr. Naik received 20 votes out of the 34 valid votes, BJP candidate Sanjiv Desai got 14. Mr. Narvekar did not allow the lone United Goan Democratic Party (UGDP) MLA, Matanhy Saldanha, to cast his vote citing Wednesday night's order from the Speaker restraining Mr. Saldanha from exercising his right as an MLA.

A beaming Mr. Naik later thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and all the MLAs who supported him and got him elected. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Ravi Naik told reporters that the outcome was on expected lines.

The 40-member Assembly was reduced to 37 after an independent MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues was disqualified by the then Speaker on February 28 and the Panaji Bench of the Goa High Court unseated two BJP MLAs — Rajendra Arlekar and Dayanand Mandrekar — on May 27 on two election petitions.

The number of eligible voters got further reduced to 36 after Speaker Francisco Sardinha passed an interim order restraining Mr. Saldanha from exercising any right as an MLA.

The order was passed on an interim plea in the disqualification petition against Mr. Saldanha filed by Congress MLA Jeetendra Deshprabhu.

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