The race to cobble up numbers to elect the sixth candidate in the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls in Maharashtra became intense on Tuesday with the ruling Shiv Sena deciding to shift its MLAs to a five-star hotel in south Mumbai to ward off poaching and MVA leaders holding talks with smaller parties and Independents backing the tripartite dispensation. On the other hand, the BJP has asked its MLAs to come to Mumbai in the next two days.
After more than two decades, the state will witness a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls as there are seven candidates in the fray for the six seats. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the MVA should contact his party if they need support while the SP has sought Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s clarification on Shiv Sena’s language of Hindutva and the government’s secular credentials. All legislators of the Sena (55) have been summoned to Mumbai and they will stay together till the polls on June 10, a Sena leader said.
“We were in ‘The Retreat’ (at Madh island in northwest Mumbai) and all our ministers too were present there. That was part of our strategy. We will be moving to hotel ‘The Trident’ (in south Mumbai) today,” Sena MLA and party spokesperson Sunil Prabhu said. The Trident is at a stone’s throw from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly where voting will take place for the six Rajya Sabha seats. Separately, leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi, which comprises the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress, have been holding talks with smaller parties and Independent legislators who have pledged their support to the tripartite government.
In the 288-member House, smaller parties have 16 MLAs together while the number of Independents is 13. While one seat is lying vacant and two NCP MLAs (Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik) are in jail, the quota of votes per candidate comes at 41. A total of seven candidates- BJP (3), Shiv Sena (2), NCP (1), and Congress (1)- are in the fray for the six RS seats.
The contest for the sixth seat lies between BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Sena’s Sanjay Pawar. Meanwhile, senior Shiv Sena leader and minister Anil Parab said talks are being held with all parties, be it the AIMIM and Samajwadi Party, who have extended their support to the MVA government. The AIMIM and the SP each have two MLAs in the House. Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh also met Parab. Shaikh told reporters that the SP has written a letter to CM Thackeray, asking him to clarify the government’s secular credentials. “The Common Minimum Programme on which the government was formed and the language of Hindutva spoken by the chief minister in his speech…there is so much of difference (between CMP and the Hindutva language). So (the CM should) clarify whether the government is secular or if Sena’s Hindutva credible or the BJP’s,” Shaikh said.
What has the government done in the last 2.5 years? The minority commission and the Haj Committee have not been formed until now, Shaikh said. “These are the issues of people. As people will ask us, we need a clarification on this. Take cognisance of our letter and respond to it,” he said.
When asked whether the Samajwadi Party is with the MVA, Shaikh said, “We are with the MVA, but look at the demands. It is ideological.” Speaking to reporters in Nanded city earlier in the day, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi had claimed that no one from the Maha Vikas Aghadi contacted his party for support in the RS polls. “If they want our support, they should contact us,” Owaisi said, adding that AIMIM will decide in a day or two.
NCP state unit president and cabinet minister Jayant Patil expressed confidence that Samajwadi Party will back MVA candidates as its politics in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra revolves around opposing the BJP. Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said all smaller parties and Independents are being contacted and requested to vote for the MVA candidates. Separately, BJP leader Girish Mahajan on Tuesday met Hitendra Thakur, seeking his support. Thakur’s Bahujan Vikas Aghadi has three MLAs and he is known as a supporter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Thakur or his party refused to make any statement regarding the meeting. CM Thackeray on Monday met the MLAs of his party, Shiv Sena, as well as others supporting it.
The Sena has fielded Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar while the BJP has nominated Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik. The NCP has fielded Praful Patel and Congress nominated Imran Pratapgarhi). The contest lies for the sixth seat between Pawar and Mahadik. Given its strength in the Assembly, the BJP has enough votes to win two seats, while the Sena, NCP and Congress can win one seat each.
The Sena (55), NCP (53) and Congress (44) — all constituents of the MVA-have enough votes together to ensure the victory for the second candidate of the Sena. While two NCP MLAs- Anil Deshmukh and minister Nawab Malik- are currently in jail, one seat is lying vacant in the 288-member House.
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