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Sharad Pawar, Ramdas Athawale, Udayanraje Bhonsle and Rajiv Satav in fray for Rajya Sabha elections
The contest for Rajya Sabha (RS) seats is heating up between Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress. Today is the last day
The contest for Rajya Sabha (RS) seats is heating up between Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress. Today is the last day to file nominations. The biennial RS elections will be held on March 26. Of the 55 seats in the RS going to polls later this month, seven are from Maharashtra. The confirmed candidates from the state are NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Union minister Ramdas Athawale, former Member of Parliament (MP) Rajiv Satav of Congress, former MP Udayanraje Bhonsle and former mayor of Aurangabad Bhagwat Karad of Bharatiya Janata Party.
While Pawar had filed his nomination on Wednesday, Athawale and Bhonsle did so on Thursday. BJP’s Karad and Congress’s Satav, whose names were declared on Thursday, will file their nominations today. Shiv Sena will field Priyanka Chaturvedi, reported news agency PTI.
The seven RS members from the state will be elected by the 288 legislators in the lower house of the legislature. To get an RS seat, a candidate requires 37 votes. BJP has 105 MLAs of its own and the support of another nine. To send four members to the RS, the support of 148 MLAs is needed. While Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena collectively have 170 members, the decision of who will get the fourth seat has led to a tussle between NCP and Congress.
NCP has 54 members in the Assembly and want to field two candidates — Pawar and Majeed Memon — who are retiring on April 2. With 44 MLAs, Congress wants to contest for the fourth seat.
“We have a long list of senior leaders who need to be rehabilitated. Hence, we are demanding the fourth seat. Mukul Wasnik (former Union minister), Hussain Dalwai (RS member, retiring next month) and Rajni Patil (former RS member) are a few contenders from the party,” said a Congress leader requesting anonymity.
A senior NCP leader said the decision on the fourth seat has already been made. “It has been decided that the seat will remain with NCP and Fauzia Khan will be filing her nomination,” said the leader requesting anonymity.
Insiders said Chaturvedi’s nomination had the approval of Sena scion Aaditya Thackeray. Senior Sena leader Diwakar Raote, who is a member of the legislative council in Maharashtra, was hopeful of getting the ticket but the party was not keen, said sources in the Shiv Sena.
