Those who insult Hanuman Chalisa lost: Devendra Fadnavis on RS elections

Devendra Fadnavis. File pic

Days after sweeping three Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took a jibe at the ruling Shiv Sena, saying those who 'insult' the Hanuman Chalisa have suffered a defeat.

Fadnavis gave a new copy of the Hanuman Chalisa, a popular hymn praising the Hindu deity Hanuman, to independent MLA Ravi Rana as the results came in in the early hours of morning.

"Those who insult Hanuman Chalisa have lost the polls," the former chief minister quipped amid party leaders and media persons. Ravi Rana and his wife and Lok Sabha member Navneet Rana, both Independents, had announced in April that they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside the residence of Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai.

The BJP won all three Rajya Sabha seats it had contested, beating one of the Shiv Sena candidates. With this win, BJP accomplished its challenge of staging an upset for the Maha Vikas Aghadi camp.

The counting for six vacancies and seven candidates was expected to begin at 5 pm on Friday, but got delayed by nine hours because of the objections raised by both sides. The final result came only in the early hours of Saturday.

Also read: Opposition trumps Shiv Sena candidate to win all 3 Rajya Sabha seats

Though they later called off their plan, Mumbai police arrested the couple for sedition among other charges. They later got bail. Ravi Rana also invited objections for carrying a copy of Hanuman Chalisa while voting in Friday's Rajya Sabha election. The Congress alleged that he tried to 'influence the voters' by displaying the Hanuman Chalisa copy, hence his vote should be rejected, but the Election Commission dismissed the objection.

In a major setback to the ruling alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, the BJP won three of the six Rajya Sabha seats by managing to get the votes of some of the Independent MLAs and smaller parties and getting the arithmetic of first and second preference votes right.

(With inputs from PTI)