Rajya Sabha Polls: Smaller Parties And Independents To Play Decisive Role In Maharashtra

Election for 57 seats to Rajya Sabha will be held on June 10. Six of them will be from Maharashtra. Of the six, three seats could easily be won by three alliance partners each of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, while BJP would have an easy win on two seats based on the number of MLAs each party has in the Maharashtra assembly.

Which side would be able to stake a claim on the sixth seat is not yet clear.

BJP, to win the sixth seat, requires 13 more votes, while MVA requires 16 more votes. In this scenario, the significance of independent players and smaller parties has been greatly enhanced. There are 16 seats held by smaller parties and 13 by independents in a 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. The contest for the sixth seat is going to be between BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar.

Bahujan Vikas Agadhi, which is part of MVA, has kept its cards open. Headed by Hirendra Thakur, it has three MLAs, all from the Palghar region. The party head had a two-hour-long meeting with BJP MLA from Jalgaon, Girish Mahajan.

AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi told the media that MVA has not yet approached the party for their support in the polls. It holds 2 seats in the Assembly. Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra head, Abu Azmi wrote a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expressing his dissatisfaction with the working of the government. Azmi has reportedly demanded the CM to prove his secular credentials, based on which the party would decide if it wants to extend its support in the Rajya Sabha polls.

In the run-up to the polls, both MVA and BJP did a show of strength by gathering their MLAs in one place. MVA has decided to move its MLAs to a hotel in South Mumbai, leaving nothing to chance. BJP, too, has decided to conduct mock drills a day prior to the voting day.

With the smaller parties flexing their muscles at the last minute, the race to Rajya Sabha has got even more interesting.