As Rajya Sabha polls near, MVA tries to secure numbers against poaching

These are interesting times for Maharashtra politics, especially considering the elections to Rajya Sabha are just around the corner. With neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor the Shiv Sena having withdrawn the nomination of their candidate, now the parties are accusing each other of horse-trading.

In the electoral college of the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, each candidate needs 42 votes to secure a win. However, with the presence of a seventh candidate—for the available six vacancies—this election will be a show of influence.

As the election date nears, MLAs of all four major political parties of the state—BJP, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress—have started arriving in Mumbai and checking into various hotels across the city.

Also Read | Ahead of Rajya Sabha polls, Shiv Sena corrals MLAs in Mumbai hotel to avoid poaching

Sources say that over the past few days, there have been a series of meetings and that there are attempts to rope in as many numbers in support of each party’s candidate as possible.

It is said that the face-off will be between the BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar.

To keep its numbers from dwindling, and its MLAs from being poached, the Shiv Sena MLAs were initially called to The Retreat at Madh Island, but the last known were being moved to the Trident in south Mumbai.

When asked why this was being done, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut lashed out at the BJP. “What you do is ‘get together’ and you accuse us of ‘hotel management’…are all the BJP MLAs in the party office…all parties are in touch with MLAs together…whether it is Shiv Sena, NCP or Congress,” he said.

Also Read: Maharashtra Rajya Sabha polls: Battle of nerves between MVA, BJP

NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase also said that the BJP will not succeed in horse-trading. “The MVA government came to power in 2019, and since then we have won every election jointly. The BJP has been trying to destabilise our MVA dispensation for long but has miserably fallen on (its) face every time. Every now and then a new date is fixed by the BJP announcing the fall of MVA which is hilarious,” said Tapase.

“In the ensuing Rajya Sabha elections, we have secured our MLAs and we will counter every move of the BJP. The BJP is desperately trying to indulge in horse-trading. The state administration is closely watching all such moves,” he said.

State Congress President Nana Patole said that the BJP will not succeed in its plans to win the third seat. “The MVA will win all the four seats,” he said.

Also Read | Shiv Sena moves MLAs to Mumbai hotel ahead of Rajya Sabha polls

Congress Legislature Party leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the purpose of calling the MLAs in advance is to brief them on the Rajya Sabha election process. “There is no scope of mistake in preferential votes,” he said.

The BJP brought in Mahadilk, a former Kolhapur Member of Parliament to contest along with Piyush Goyal, who is the Commerce and Industry Minister in the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. The party also named Dr Anil Bonde, a party stalwart from the Vidarbha region, in an attempt to win three seats against the numerical strength for two seats.

The NCP has renominated Praful Patel, who was the Civil Aviation Minister in the erstwhile Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. The surprise candidate from Congress, however, has been Imran Pratapgarhi, an Uttar Pradesh-based Urdu poet.

Besides nominating Raut for the Rajya Sabha seat, the Shiv Sena besides Sanjay Raut also fielded Sanjay Pawar and is assured of extra votes from its allies, NCP and Congress.