As the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not find the middle ground after a meeting on Friday, the six Rajya Sabha seats from the state are set to be put to a vote.
While the three ruling parties – Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Congress – have fielded four candidates, BJP has put up three candidates for the RS elections slated to be held on June 10.
An MVA delegation led by NCP leader and food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal met leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis at his official bungalow in the presence of Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Friday morning to request the prime opposition party to avoid elections.
The ruling alliance offered to help BJP in the legislative council election if it withdrew its third candidate. However, BJP gave the MVA a counter offer, asking it to withdraw Sena candidate Sanjay Pawar on the promise of fielding one candidate less in the council poll. Election to 10 council seats will be conducted on June 20.
Sena MP Anil Desai and Congress leader and dairy development minister Sunil Kedar also attended the meeting.
“Following the tradition in the state, we tried to convince the opposition to withdraw their third nominee as it would help get the candidates elected unopposed. We have adequate votes to win four seats, and it would have been in the interest of BJP to pull its third candidate out of the race. We also offered to help them win an additional seat in the council elections,” Bhujbal said after the meeting.
Congress leader and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat said the MVA had sufficient number of votes to elect the four candidates. “I do not think our candidates will have any problem winning the seats. All the independents and the smaller parties’ MLAs are with us and we have shared a very cordial relationship with them in the last two-and-a-half years of the government. We do not even think that there would be cross-voting from our side.”
Alleging that BJP was spending crores of rupees on horse-trading ahead of the RS polls, Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said the Enforcement Directorate must investigate this alleged “money laundering”.
Raut, who is also a candidate, claimed that “forcing elections unnecessarily” was part of “the opposition’s design to create instability in Maharashtra”. He indicated that chief minister Uddhav Thackeray did speak to BJP leaders to convince them to see that the voting was avoided.
Patil said both sides were ready to give up an additional council seat in lieu of one RS seat.
“The MVA wanted us to withdraw our third candidate and assured us that they would not field their sixth candidate in the council polls. We offered them to not field our fifth candidate in the council polls if their fourth candidate exited the Rajya Sabha race. Since both the sides were not ready to give up one RS seat, the elections are inevitable now. We already have 30 votes with the help of the Independents, and it would not be impossible to manage 12 more votes to win the third seat. We know how to manage the Rajya Sabha polls in which the calculations depend on the preferential votes,” he said.
Fadnavis said the MVA should have withdrawn its candidate if it feared horse-trading.
“We have more numbers as a party than Sena. It is they who have started horse-trading,” he told reporters in Panvel.
“We have nominated a third candidate. We are confident about the decision-making capacity of the MLAs and we also have the numbers and hence, we will win all the three Rajya Sabha seats,” the BJP leader said.
A Congress leader, requesting anonymity, said their attempt to reach out to the opposition was to avoid horse-trading. “We knew that BJP was unlikely to withdraw its candidate, but we wanted to create the perception that we tried to avoid it. We were even ready to give up one council seat as garnering additional votes becomes a tough job. It is true that winning the additional council seat would be more challenging as it’s a secret ballot voting unlike the RS polls where voting is held with an open ballot.”
A BJP leader said their aim was to expose the rift within the MVA. “It is true that it is difficult for us to win the additional seat, but it would not be as embarrassing for us as it would be to the MVA if their candidate was defeated. Even if we could manage to divert a couple of their votes, we would be successful in sending out a message that their strength had dwindled.
The MVA has fielded Raut and Pawar (both from Sena), former union minister and NCP leader Praful Patel, and Congress’ minority cell’s national chief Imran Pratapgarhi. Pawar is treated as the additional candidate fielded with the help of the surplus votes the ruling parties have.
The ruling combine has a collective strength of 169 MLAs comprising 55 from Sena, 53 from the NCP, and 44 from Congress, besides the support of eight Independents and nine smaller parties’ members. The strength was proven during the confidence vote in November 2019. If it manages to maintain the number in the assembly, the MVA can win all four seats. Each candidate needs 42 votes to win.
On the other hand, BJP has renominated Piyush Goyal and fielded former state minister Anil Bonde as its primary candidates. Former MP Dhananjay Mahadik, a resourceful politician from Kolhapur, has been put up by the party as its third candidate. Besides its own strength of 106 MLAs, the opposition party enjoys the support of five Independents and three smaller parties’ MLAs.
Thackeray is going to chair a meeting of the Independents and smaller parties’ MLAs next week in the presence of key leaders from the alliance. Those legislators are expected to get assurance from the MVA to fulfil their ‘demands’ related to the development works and the transfers of government officers.
BJP, which is short of over 12 votes, has also started reaching out to the Independents and smaller parties who are on the side of the MVA.
The assembly has 13 Independents and 16 smaller parties’ members.
(With inputs from G Mohiuddin Jeddy)