Day before: Court rejects pleas of 2 NCP leaders to vote, BJP to airlift two MLAs

Ahead of the election, which is all set to go down to the wire, the ruling MVA suffered a setback with a special court in Mumbai refusing permission to NCP leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh to vote in the polls, the BJP deciding to airlift two ailing MLAs from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad and all ruling and Opposition parties holding mock polls as well as meetings.

The MVA on Thursday received a major jolt with the special Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act court Judge R N Rokade rejecting the pleas of Malik and Deshmukh — who are in judicial custody in connection to separate money laundering cases — on the ground that they are “not entitled to vote” in the Rajya Sabha elections and “cannot claim entitlement” to get the facility to go to Vidhan Sabha to vote.

Soon after the PMLA court rejected their pleas, Malik and Deshmukh approached the Bombay High Court challenging the order.

In all, there are seven candidates in the fray for six seats. They are Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar, NCP’s Praful Patel, Congress’ Imran Pratapgadi and BJP’s Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik. The voting for the six seats will take place on Friday and the results will be declared the same day.

The BJP, which is the single largest party with 106 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, had forced an election after it decided to field Dhananjay Mahadik from Kolhapur as its third candidate. Due to its electoral strength in the Assembly, it can comfortably get two of its candidates elected.

Its decision to filed Mahadik has, however, queered the pitch, forcing an election and a rush from both sides to woo Independents and smaller parties. Sena has fielded Sanjay Pawar, the party’s district chief from Kolhapur, from the seat.

Upping the game, the BJP has decided to airlift its two ailing members — Laxman Jagtap (Pimpri-Chinchwad) and Mumbai Tilak (Kasbapeth in Pune) – to ensure full attendance during the elections. The party has kept all it 106 MLAs at Taj President in Mumbai. At a late evening meeting on Thursday, the top state BJP leadership addressed the MLAs.

Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, who had tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week, has now tested negative, said the party. He will be able to exercise his vote on Friday.

Meanwhile, AICC observer for Rajya Sabha polls, Mallikarjun Kharge, and AICC secretary for Maharashtra, H K Patil, met Congress MLAs at Hotel Renaissance in Powai where they are staying put. Kharge and Patil directed the MLAs how to vote and a mock poll was held at the hotel.

Sources in the Shiv Sena said that party MLAs are also being sensitised about how to vote. The MLAs have been staying at Trident hotel in south Mumbai hotel for the last few days.

The Sena, meanwhile, criticised the BJP for foisting the elections on the state. “The BJP fielded candidates for the sixth seat by tempting and putting pressure on Independent MLAs. It imposed Rajya Sabha elections though it did not have the required votes. However, the overall atmosphere is such that the BJP will regret this,” said the editorial in party mouthpiece in Saamana.

INPUTS BY VISHWAS WAGHMODE