Ahead of the competition for the sixth Rajya Sabha seat in Maharashtra and to avoid poaching of its members by the opposition, the ruling ally in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, Shiv SenaHas asked all its MLAs to come to Mumbai on June 8. Arrangements have been made to keep him in a hotel in south Mumbai till the elections are over on June 10.
Shiv Sena has fielded two candidates for the upcoming elections to the Upper House.
Sources said that along with Shiv Sena, other parties in the MVA – Congress and NCP – are also in the process of devising a strategy to put together all their MLAs as well as MLAs of independents and allies, so that any illegality to avoid hunting.
A total of seven candidates are in the fray for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Friday was the last day for withdrawal of nominations, but no candidate backed out, making the fight for the sixth seat imminent, which would be primarily between Sanjay Pawar and Shiv Sena. BJP‘s Dhananjay Mahadik.
On June 8, Chief Minister and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray will hold a rally in Aurangabad. Keeping the same in mind, the party has advised all MLAs other than Aurangabad region to reach Mumbai. A senior party leader said, “We have called all our party MLAs, allies and independent candidates to Mumbai as a precautionary measure. He has been asked to come to Mumbai on June 8.”
Whereas, BJP and MVA are now dependent on independents and other smaller parties for elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) who supported the MVA during the government formation in Maharashtra in 2019 are yet to open their cards. While SP has two and BVA has three MLAs.
Amidst all this, SP MLA Abu Azmi wrote a letter to the CM on Saturday accusing the MVA government of neglecting the minorities. He asked whether the government was secular or the new Hindutva, which is being talked about, is now the face of the MVA.
It is his letter, Azmi said, adding that it was the responsibility of the MVA government to give an explanation to the people as to why it did not take any action on the issues of minorities in the last two-and-a-half years.
When contacted, Azmi said, “We will decide who to support only after getting a reply from the MVA on the issues being faced by the minorities.”
BVA president Hitendra Thakur, whose support is crucial for both the BJP and the MVA in the Rajya Sabha polls, said, “A decision on whom to vote is yet to be taken. A decision on this will be taken after taking the opinion of all the party leaders. Many leaders (from BJP and MVA) are meeting me, but no decision has been taken yet.”
The Maharashtra BJP on Friday refused to withdraw its third candidate from the polls, setting the stage for a contest for the sixth seat, a scenario the MVA was trying to avoid.
Whereas BJP has fielded three candidates- Piyush GoyalAnil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik — the NCP has renominated Praful Patel. The Sena has fielded Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. The Congress candidate is Imran Pratapgarhi.