MVA repeats show of strength

In what was a sort of repeat of November-2019, the Sharad Pawar-crafted and Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Tuesday night staged a massive show of strength a couple of days ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra.

The elections to Rajya Sabha is scheduled on Friday - and a total of seven candidates - four from MVA and three from BJP are in fray for six vacancies.

This is the first time in around a quarter of a century that the state would see a Rajya Sabha polls - the last time being in 1998 - as in the rest of the elections, the members were elected unopposed.

With BJP putting up an additional candidate, the tug-of-war has commenced, however, any threat to the two-and-a-half-year-old MVA has been ruled out.

In November-2019, when the Shiv Sena forged an alliance with the NCP-Congress and kept the BJP out of power in Maharashtra, they declared strength of 170 and sailed through the confidence motion.

The meeting at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai was addressed by top leaders including Thackeray, Pawar, veteran Congressman and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha among others.

“All the four candidates of the MVA will win the elections,” leaders of the MVA said emerging from the over one-hour-long meeting.

Speaking to reporters, Thackeray said: “Let anyone try anything, all the four (MVA) candidates will win the elections.” However, he added that there was a tradition in Maharashtra to send Rajya Sabha members unopposed but it has been broken by BJP.

The BJP has fielded three candidates - Piyush Goyal, who is the Commerce & Industry Minister in the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, Dr Anil Bonde, a party stalwart from the Vidarbha region, and Dhananjay Mahadik, a former MP, a former Kolhapur MP.

The NCP has renominated close Pawar-aide Praful Patel, who was the Civil Aviation Minister in the erstwhile Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.

The Congress has Imran Pratapgarhi, an Uttar Pradesh-based Urdu poet - though it has caused resentment in party ranks and files in Maharashtra.

The Shiv Sena has fielded the party’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar, the Kolhapur district chief of the party, who has been assured of extra votes from NCP-Congress.

Technically, it has become a battle between Pawar and Mahadik, incidentally both from Kolhapur.

The electoral college is the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, however, the present strength is 287. The minimum first preference votes needed to win the elections is 42.

In the MVA meeting around a dozen Independents and members of smaller parties were present.

The CPI (M) MLA Vinod Nikole has extended support to the MVA.

The 3 votes of Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) and what stand Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) and Asaduddin Owaisi’s outfit All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) takes are going to be crucial.

Besides, the stand of Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and lone Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Vinod Nikole will matter now.

The BVA has 3 members, followed by 2 each of AIMIM and SP, while MVA has 1 member.

During the confidence motion in 2019, MNS, AIMIM and CPI (M) abstained from voting.