The Congress has said the Shiv Senas denial of a Rajya Sabha nomination to Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athavale is a reflection of the partys hatred towards the Dalit community. The Shiv Senas denial to Athavale is a final blow to the concept of Mahayuti, said Sachin Sawant,spokesperson of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. Though the post-poll analysis of results in Mumbai showed the Dalit vote had been split in the financial capital,Sawant said it was evident from the nagar panchayat,panchayat samiti,zilla parishad and corporation election results that the Mahayutior the alliance of the Shiv Sena,Bharatiya Janata Party and theRPI(A) had not been accepted by the people of Maharashtra. The performance of the RPI,Shiv Sena and BJP was dismal in rural Maharashtra. Even in the cities,the RPI could not get any noticeable success, Sawant said. According to him,while the Sena-BJP had won 112 seats without the RPI in the 2007 polls to the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation,the seat-sharing alliance with the RPI has led to a reduced tally for the saffron combine. This means the Dalit votes have not been transferred to the saffron alliance. Also,out of 29 seats that RPI contested,they managed to win only one seat. In the remaining 28 seats,the RPI has won a meagre number of votes, Sawant said. This means the traditional saffron votes were also not transferred to Dalit candidates. Calling the alliance an opportunist initiative,the Congress leader said Athavale himself had been more keen to corner an RS nomination than give meaningful representation to the Dalit community.
