BJP against fielding 4th name from Maharashtra for RS polls; predicts NDA candidates will be elected 'unopposed'

Mumbai: Former Congressman Ashok Chavan figured in the BJP-led NDA list of nominations for the six seats of Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, the elections to which are expected to be unopposed.

The Congress sprung a surprise by naming former Mumbai mayor and ex-minister Chandrakant Handore, a veteran and respected Dalit leader — to check the moves of the BJP to put up an additional candidate.

Besides Chavan, the BJP list includes Medha Kulkarni, a former MLA from Pune city and Dr Ajeet Gopchade, an RSS pracharak-turned-BJP leader, who is currently the vice president of the state unit.

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, who is the Shiv Sena chief leader and deputy chief ministers - BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis and NCP president Ajit Pawar - held a series of meetings over the last three days to finalise the names of Maha Yuti candidates and sent for approval to BJP’s central leadership.

Deora, a two-time former Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai South and son of Gandhi-family loyalist Murli Deora, is likely to be the candidate of Shiv Sena.

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The six retiring members are Narayan Rane, Prakash Javadekar and V Muraleedharan (all three from BJP), Kumar Ketkar (Congress), Anil Desai (Shiv Sena) and Vandana Chavan (NCP) are retiring in April and polls to fill the vacancies are being held in February.

The last date of filing of nominations is 15 February and polling, if needed, would be held on 27 February.

Rane, who is the union MSME minister, has not been renominated and he may be asked to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, his Konkan bastion, where his son Dr Nilesh Rane has lost twice to Vinayak Raut of the undivided Shiv Sena, who is a loyalist of the Thackeray-family.

Javadekar and Muraleedharan have not been renominated by the BJP while the names of Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde, who now work at the national level, do not find mention.

The electoral college comprises the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the current strength of which is 284 - and a candidate needs 41 first preference votes to secure a win.

Meanwhile the BJP has decided against fielding a 4th candidate for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections.

BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the respective have their winning quotas for the 6 seats and there was no need for a fourth candidate. “We are not going to give a fourth candidate. The elections shall definitely be unopposed,” he asserted.

BJP against fielding 4th name from Maharashtra for RS polls; predicts NDA candidates will be elected 'unopposed'

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