MUMBAI: Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) MLA Shyamsundar Shinde on Sunday refuted Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut's charge that he did not vote for the MVA and likened the Sena MP to the Sanjay of Mahabharat who could see the Kurukshetra war without being present there through "divyadrishti" or divine vision.
Calling himself an associate member of the Nationalist Congress Party, Shinde said he had voted for MVA candidates as per the instructions of the party.
Shinde is the second MLA after Swambhimani Paksha's Devendra Bhuyar to refute Raut's allegation that at least six MLAs did not vote for the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress), despite assuring to do so in the recently-held Rajya Sabha polls for six seats in Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena's second nominee Sanjay Pawar lost the keenly-watched contest for the sixth seat to BJP's third nominee Dhananjay Mahadik.
Even Raut managed to get 41 votes, the minimum number of preferential votes needed to be elected as a Rajya Sabha MP in Friday's polls.
"The MLAs of major parties were supposed to show the votes cast by them to their respective representatives. The rest were not supposed to show it to anyone," Shinde told reporters.
While Sena's second nominee Sanjay Pawar lost to BJP's third nominee Dhananjay Mahadik, other MVA partners- NCP and Congress- won one seat each.
The BJP bagged all the three seats it had contested.
Taking a dig at Raut, the PWP MLA said, "If he knows which of these MLAs votes for whom then he is the Sanjay of Mahabharat. I have voted only for the MVA candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls".
He, however, did not elaborate which candidate he voted for as the first, second and third preference in RS polls.
After Sena's Pawar lost to Mahadik in a cliffhanger, Raut said three MLAs of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), an independent MLA from Karmala Sanjaymama Shinde, Swabhimani Party MLA Devendra Bhuyar, and PWP MLA Shyamsunder Shinde did not vote for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) despite assuring to do so.
"Some horses were up for sale at a higher price and shifted sides despite the assurance of their votes to our candidate," Raut had said.
Earlier in the day, MLA Bhuyar claimed he had voted for the Shiv Sena in the RS polls.