The suspenseful and Dramatic battle for Rajya Sabha Polls in Maharashtra led to the BJP winning the 3 Rajya Seats. It was a normal setback for the MVA ruling alliance of the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress. There were elections for Six Rajya Sabha Seats from Maharashtra. The BJP fielded three candidates. The winning alliance was Shiv Sena 2 and NCP-Congress 1 each. So, there was a tussle for the 6th seat which had two contenders. Interestingly, more small parties sided with the MVA still the BJP alliance with cross-voting. This election result is expected to influence the upcoming MLC and Civic body polls in the state.
For the last seat, BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadhik won. While Shivsena’s Sanjay Pawar lost his bid. A candidate required 41 seats to win. It implies that nearly 10 extra votes went into BJP’s favour. The other candidates who won were BJP’s Piyush Goyal and Anil Bonde. From the Congress, Imran Pratapgarhi and Praful Patel from NCP managed to win a seat. On the other hand, only Sanjay Raut managed to win from the Shivsena Camp.
The Intense Battle for Rajya Sabha Polls
BJP’s win was a surprise that followed an intense battle. Two votes could not be cast from the MVA side of NCP leader Nawab Malik and Former Home Minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh because they were not granted a day’s bail to cast their vote. The counting began after a massive delay of 8 hours. The reason for this delay was tension in the upper house due to the allegations of cross-voting. Even BJP was accused of violating the rules of voting.
Every year the Rajya Sabha Candidates are elected unopposed, but after 1998 the state witnessed an election for a Rajya Sabha candidate. This was because BJP decided to field an extra candidate, creating an atmosphere of suspicion. Before the counting of votes, representatives from both the Shivsena and BJP met the Election Commission officials. Both alleged cross-voting, asking for action against the other one. They asked for the disqualification of 3 Shivsena MLAs. Shivsena demanded the disqualification of a BJP MLA and an Independent MLA.
Tactics to Win seat in Rajya Sabha
All the political parties tried their best to prevent cross-voting in Rajya Sabha polls and sent their respective MLAs to various Luxury resorts or 5-star hotels in Mumbai to keep them together. Commenting on the results, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar said that he was not surprised by the result. He further said that it happened because BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis managed to get Independent candidates to their side who were initially with MVA. At the same time, he reinstated that there is no threat to the stability of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. A total of 285 votes were polled in the elections. The AIMIM sided with the MVA while Raj Thackeray’s MNS announced its support to the BJP.Â
The situation in other key states
In Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, the BJP secured 8 Seats from a total of 16 seats. This win has increased its strength in the Upper house of the Parliament which can help it during the upcoming presidential elections in 2022. The results were declared earlier in the day today and a recounting of votes took place after Midnight.
Summing up,
The battlefield will again be set for the legislative council elections that are bound to take place in nine days with a secret ballot. This cross-voting can be a disadvantage for the MVA in those elections. BJP has selected six candidates and backed one independent candidate in an election for a total of 10 seats. It means again there will be a battle for 2 seats. The district council elections are also scheduled and if BJP manages to win, it will boost its bid to become a challenger to the MVA. While MVA needs to be careful about trusting the small parties and independent MLAs. At the same time, it’s a stamp on the BJP’S election strategy.
