As both the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance parties and the opposition BJP herded their MLAs into five-star hotels in Mumbai, a flurry of meetings, parleys and ‘secret’ deals throughout Sunday marked the countdown to the high-stakes Maharashtra Legislative Council elections on June 20.
Wary of their setback in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha election when the MVA had lost the sixth seat to the BJP, hectic ‘strategy-making’ sessions were held by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Shiv Sena and the Congress leaders.
Eleven candidates are in the fray for 10 MLC seats, with the three MVA parties each fielding two candidates while the BJP fielding five candidates. The victory quota is around 26 votes as the strength of the 288-member Legislature has now reduced to 285, following the demise of Sena MLA Ramesh Latke and the arrest of two NCP leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh.
With independents and smaller parties again holding the key to the outcome as in the RS polls, the day saw both MVA and BJP leaders holding parleys with independent MLAs to solicit their support.
Reaches out to BVA
Former State Minister and NCP leader Eknath Khadse, who is one of the NCP candidates, met with Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) leader Hitendra Thakur to seek the support of the three BVA legislators.
“I have spoken with Mr. Thakur and asked his legislators to vote for me. I am sure he will take the right decision,” said Mr. Khadse after his meeting.
In the Rajya Sabha polls, Mr. Thakur had swung his outfit’s votes to favour the BJP.
The Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has said it intended to give its two votes to the NCP, with AIMIM MLA from Dhule Shah Faruk Anwar meeting NCP leader Ajit Pawar to express his party’s support.
Senior Congressman Balasaheb Thorat, however, expressed confidence that the MVA would win all six seats, while claiming that all independent MLAs would support the MVA this time. He stressed there were no co-ordination problems with his party’s other allies — the NCP and the Sena.
Earlier, top Congress leaders met with their NCP counterparts at the Trident Hotel where all NCP legislators have been housed till polling day on Monday.
CM confident
Speaking on the occasion of the Shiv Sena’s 56 th Foundation Day, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said he was confident of his party’s victory in the MLC polls while emphatically remarking there were “no traitors within the Sena” and that “no vote was split during the Rajya Sabha polls” (when the Sena’s Sanjay Pawar had lost to the BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik).
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis met with all BJP legislators at the Taj Hotel, where the saffron party MLAs have been kept.
Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar claimed that several MVA legislators were unhappy with their own government and would vote for the BJP.
The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs, while the NCP’s voting strength is down to 51, given that Mr. Deshmukh and Mr. Malik are behind bars. The Congress has 44 legislators.
While the opposition BJP has 106, the RS polls saw that it had the support of at least 17 independent legislators and MLAs from the smaller parties.
It is the BJP’s gambit of propping up a fifth candidate in the form of Prasad Lad, a blue-eyed boy of Mr. Fadnavis, that has made the contest particularly interesting.
Given that the MLC polls are to be held by secret ballot and assuming there is no cross-voting, then the Sena and the NCP can get both their candidates elected with the support of the odd-independents. However, the Congress will have to struggle to get its second candidate elected.
While technically the BJP can get four of its candidates elected, the fifth candidate will have to scrounge around for votes from independents and smaller parties.
