Shiv Sena to put up all its MLAs at Mumbai hotel till polls are concluded

Shiv Sena has fielded two candidates for the upcoming elections for the Upper House.

Along with Sena, other parties in the MVA – Congress and NCP – are also in the process of preparing a strategy to keep all their MLAs as well as Independents and legislators of allied parties together to avoid any chance of poaching, said sources.

In all, seven candidates are in the fray for six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra. While Friday was the last day for withdrawal of nominations, no candidate retreated, making the contest imminent for the sixth seat, which will be primarily between Sena’s Sanjay Pawar and BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik.

On June 8, Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will hold a rally in Aurangabad. Taking note of the same, the party has advised all MLAs, other than those from the Aurangabad region, to reach Mumbai. A senior party leader said, “We have called all MLAs belonging to our party, allied parties and Independents to Mumbai as a precautionary measure. They have been told to come to Mumbai on June 8.”

While, the BJP and the MVA are now banking on Independents and the other smaller parties for the elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) who supported the MVA during the formation of the government in Maharashtra in 2019, are yet to open their cards. While SP has two MLAs and the BVA three.

Amid all this, SP MLA Abu Azmi on Saturday wrote to the CM, accusing the MVA government of neglecting the minorities. He asked if the government was secular or is the new Hindutva, which it is being talked about, the MVA’s face now.

It his letter, Azmi said that it was the responsibility of the MVA government to give an explanation to the people on why it has not taken any action on the issues faced by minorities over the last two-and-a-half years.

When contacted, Azmi said, “We will decide whom to support only after we get an answer from the MVA on the issues faced by the minorities.”

Hitendra Thakur, the BVA president whose support is key in the Rajya Sabha polls for both BJP and MVA, said, “The decision on whom to vote for is yet to be taken. It will be decided after taking the opinion of all party leaders. Many leaders (from BJP and MVA) have been meeting me but a decision is yet to be taken.”

The Maharashtra BJP on Friday refused to withdraw its third candidate from the elections, setting the stage for a contest for the sixth seat, a scenario the MVA had been trying to avoid.

While the BJP has fielded three candidates – Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik — the NCP has renominated Praful Patel. The Sena has fielded Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. The Congress candidate is Imran Pratapgarhi.