Congress launches damage control exercise ahead of Rajya Sabha polls

Mumbai: Hours after veteran politician Ashok Chavan left the Congress, the leadership of the grand old party in Maharashtra launched a massive damage control exercise with a select group of leaders establishing contact with MLAs and checking their moves ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha polls.

The Congress has a strength of 44 in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly - the largest group in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi which also comprises the Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Sharad Pawar-Supriya Sule-headed Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).

Chavan commands a huge strength and at least 10-12 legislators are very close to him and are in regular touch with the Marathwada veteran.

While Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole left for Chhattisgarh to meet Congress leader and Wayand MP Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, top leaders including Congress Legislative Party leader Balasaheb Thorat, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and veteran leader and party’s working president Naseem Khan got into the job and started calling of MLAs.

“We are speaking to the legislators. So far none of them have conveyed that they would join him,” Thorat and Chavan said.

The Congress has convened Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on 14 and 15 February, coinciding with the filing of nominations for elections to the Rajya Sabha. Given the current strength of Congress, they can easily win one of the six seats, however, the development has come as a shocker.

Six Rajya Sabha members 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.

There are chances that BJP may put up an additional candidate for elections to six seats of the Upper House of Parliament.

The electoral college for the Rajya Sabha polls is 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

However, now the strength is 285 - because of the death of Anil Babar (Shiv Sena) and the Govardhan Sharma (BJP) and the disqualification of Sunil Kedar (Congress).

One candidate would need a minimum of 42 votes to win the elections.

As far as the opposition MVA (I.N.D.I.A) side is concerned, the Congress has 43 MLAs who are eligible to vote, Shiv Sena (UBT) 16 and NCP (SP) 11 besides few Independents.

As far as Maha Yuti (NDA) is concerned, the BJP has a bench strength of 104, followed by Ajit Pawar-led NCP 44 and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena 39 plus support of independents/others.

If one looks at the arithmetic, BJP can easily win three seats and give one seat each to Shinde and Ajit Pawar - making a total for the ruling. The Congress can win one seat easily on its own strength.

However, if there are seven or eight candidates for the six seats - there could be surprises.

The BJP could target the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.