The Hindu : National : Congress wins four Council seats

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Friday, Jun 02, 2006

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National

Congress wins four Council seats

Special Correspondent

A setback to Shiv Sena; wins only one seat

MUMBAI: Four Congress candidates won in the biennial elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council, even as Shiv Sena candidate Vijay Loke and Vasant Oswal of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) lost.

Elections to 11 seats were held on Thursday with 13 candidates in the fray.

The four winning Congress candidates were: Ulhas Pawar, Govindrao Adik, Rajan Teli, a close confidante of Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, and trade union leader S.Q. Zama.

The NCP fielded four candidates and its three winners were Arun Gujarathi, Usha Darade and the Republican Party of India candidate whom it supported, Preetam Shegaonkar.

The Shiv Sena winner Parshuram Uparkar, had lost his deposit in the Malvan byelection against Mr. Rane.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Pasha Patel and Keshavrao Mankar were elected. The Peasants and Workers Party Candidate Jayant Patil also made it to the council.

Earlier, Sena chief whip Gajanan Kirtikar issued a whip, asking five of the party, who support Mr. Rane, not to vote. Mr. Rane termed this unconstitutional and said he would resort to legal action. The Sena later said it would initiate action against the five for defying the whip.

The former Minister, Surupsinh Naik, who was convicted by the Supreme Court for permitting sawmills to run in the vicinity of a protected area, was not allowed to vote.

There was jubilation in the ranks of the Congress. Mr. Rane told reporters that he was confident of the victory. He said he was grateful to Congress President Sonia Gandhi for allowing the Congress to field a fourth candidate in the polls.

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