Poll seems inevitable for 6 Maha RS seats

MVA offers extra MLC seat to BJP, Fadnavis rejects it

The election will be held in Maharashtra for six seats of Rajya Sabha on June 10 as seven candidates are contesting it.

MVA leaders on Friday met senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil to urge them to withdraw the nomination of the BJP’s third candidate for the unopposed election of Rajya Sabha.

However, the BJP has rejected MVA’s proposal.

Since neither the MVA nor the BJP has the numbers to get all of their candidates elected, a lot will depend on 29 from smaller parties and independents.

The last day of withdrawal of nomination forms was on Friday (June

3) for Rajya Sabha election. The BJP has fielded three candidates — Union minister Piyush Goyal, former Maharashtra agriculture minister Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik.

Shiv Sena has also fielded two candidates — its spokesperson Sanjay Raut and Kolhapur district president Sanjay Pawar.

While the Congress and NCP have fielded a candidate each.

In 288-member state Assembly, BJP has 106 MLAs. A candidate needs a minimum of 42 votes to win the election in the first round. The party has

22 additional votes after ensuring victory of its two candidates.

The Shiv Sena has 13 additional votes for its second candidate. However, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party is assured of 13 additional votes of Congress and NCP. Both the sides will depend on the 29 votes of Independent legislators and smaller parties. One seat is vacant after the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke.

The MVA delegation which included Chhagan Bhujbal, Sunil Kedar and Anil Desai met BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis. They proposed to give an extra seat to BJP in the state legislative council if BJP withdraws one of its candidates for Rajya Sabha.

However, Mr Fadnavis rejected the proposal and gave a counter offer. He said the BJP will leave the extra MLC seat for the ruling alliance if it withdraws one of its candidates. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the MVA representatives met BJP leaders as per chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s instructions.

Mr Bhujbal said, “Maharashtra has a tradition of unopposed elections

for Rajya Sabha and the legislative council. Therefore we want to make every effort to keep up with the tradition. We are still trying to find a way out.”

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil said, “We are the national party. For us, the Rajya Sabha seat is more important. Our claim is based on logic. We have additional

30 votes including 24 of the party and 6 small alliance partners. We are falling short of 11 to 12 votes. But MVA would not cross 30 votes,” Mr. Patil said.