It’s time for Rajya Sabha elections again

According to the BJP camp, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is keen on fielding a fourth candidate with an aim to snatch Congress votes and defeat the latter’s candidate. Fadnavis has apparently discussed this with the top bosses in Delhi. If this happens, there are apprehensions of cross-voting in the MVA camp

Six seats in Maharashtra are among the 56 Rajya Sabha seats for which elections will be held on February 27. The members of the legislative assembly will vote for the Rajya Sabha candidates. The members from Maharashtra whose terms will end are union minister Narayan Rane, V Murlidharan, Prakash Javdekar (all BJP), Anil Desai (Shiv Sena), Kumar Ketkar (Congress) and Vandana Chavan (NCP). Considering the current strength of the parties in the assembly, BJP can easily send three nominees, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Congress can get one member elected each. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has more than 40 legislators and can get one candidate elected. However, since neither Election Commission of India (ECI) nor Assembly Speaker has given a verdict on the NCP split, it is not clear whose whip would be applicable for the legislators to follow. Ajit Pawar’s colleagues are confident that the ECI ruling will come before the election which would make things easier.

There are speculations that Congress could field former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan from Maharashtra and he could be projected as the candidate of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) (PTI)

There are speculations that Congress could field former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan from Maharashtra and he could be projected as the candidate of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA). However, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs may not be able to vote if Shinde-led Shiv Sena issues a whip for them to vote in favour of its candidate. Same is the case with the legislators from both the NCP factions.

According to the BJP camp, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is keen on fielding a fourth candidate with an aim to snatch Congress votes and defeat the latter’s candidate. Fadnavis has apparently discussed this with the top bosses in Delhi. If this happens, there are apprehensions of cross-voting in the MVA camp. It was the Rajya Sabha elections in June 2022 when the indications were clear that things were not right in the MVA camp. In a contest for sixth seat, BJP outsmarted Shiv Sena as its nominee Dhananjay Mahadik won by a slender margin defeating Sena nominee Sanjay Pawar. Vote of a Shiv Sena member was cancelled by the ECI on complaints from the BJP. The legislation council elections that were held a week later witnessed large scale cross-voting by Shiv Sena MLAs and on the same day Shinde left for Surat with a group of MLAs.

The Ambedkar conundrum

On Friday, MVA leaders who met at a south Mumbai hotel to discuss seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections were a bit relieved that Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar finally turned up for the meeting. With barely a month for the election to be declared, all three parties in the MVA are keen to finalise seat-sharing so that they can begin the campaign. However, their satisfaction was short-lived. Ambedkar told them that a common minimum programme (CMP) should be worked out first after which seat-sharing could be taken up. Ambedkar’s remark that the INDIA coalition is over also left his new allies red-faced. The MVA leaders have figured out that dealing with Ambedkar would be a tricky business. In fact, they are even preparing for it. Within hours of his demand, they set up a panel under former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to work out a CMP. Even after the previous MVA meeting on January 30, Ambedkar had alleged that a representative sent by him was made to wait outside while discussions of the three parties were on inside. Immediately, MVA leaders posted pictures of the meeting on social media to show that VBA representatives took part in the meeting and even had lunch with them.

A hair-y issue

NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) minister and prominent Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader Chhagan Bhujbal has been aggressive in his opposition to decisions taken by his government in response to Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil to give benefits of OBC quota to Marathas who can prove their Kunbi antecedents. In his zest, he is even kicking up controversies. Addressing a rally of OBCs on Saturday, Bhujbal cited an instance where a barber’s shop was allegedly boycotted by Maratha community members for posting a comment in support of OBC reservation on social media. Bhujbal then appealed to the barbers not to provide their services to Marathas. “Let them shave each other’s beards,” he remarked amid laughter. Such rhetoric from both the sides, however, has raised concerns that the atmosphere in the state, especially in rural Maharashtra, could worsen in the coming days.