Soon Rajya Sabha elections will start in Maharashtra for six seats but a big problem has arisen for the ruling coalition after 2 leaders were denied bail. For the first time in more than two decades, there is a contest with 7 candidates.
All eyes are set on June 10th Maharashtra’s Rajya Sabha elections. This battle will take place between the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition and the opposition BJP.
In this election, the congress has put up Imran Pratapgarhi, who is known to be close to Priyanka Gandhi, while Shiv Sena has fielded Sanjay Pawar and Sanjay Raut. The Nationalist Congress party has put forward Praful Patel.
On the other hand, the BJP has fielded Dr. Anil Bonde, Piyush Goyal, and Dhananjay Mahadik. The contest for the sixth seat lies between BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar.
In the 287-member strong assembly, the Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP has 53 and the congress has 44. The opposition BJP has 106 MLAs. The required number for a candidate to win is 42 votes.
Rajya Sabha elections are done by an open ballot still no party is taking any chances. The political parties have shifted their MLAs into five-star hotels in South Mumbai and Suburban Mumbai. This shows the return of resort politics where the political parties shift their MLAs into resorts and five-star hotels. This precaution has been taken to prevent any betrayals and cross-voting.
Rajya Sabha Ruling Party in Peril
Misfortune arose for the ruling party as the court denied bail for two arrested leaders, Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh. Nawab Malik, a Maharashtra Minister, was arrested by the enforcement directorate in a money laundering case. Anil Deshmukh home minister is also in jail on similar allegations. Both had requested a day’s bail to cast their vote in the Rajya Sabha election tomorrow. But the court complied with the enforcement directorate’s argument that “prisoners don’t have voting rights”. Hence, creating further tensions for the Nationalist Congress Party.
On the other hand, the opposition party got relief when its leader Devendra Fadnavis tested negative for covid which implies he can vote tomorrow.
Other Deciding Factors
The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi has the numbers to win three out of six Rajya Sabha seats. The BJP which has 106 members in the assembly, can easily win two on its own but still has fielded the third and set up a contest for the sixth seat, between the BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar.
This time even the smaller parties and independents that account for 29 MLAs will play a major role in deciding who wins. Therefore, former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reached out to them to ensure BJP’s victory.
