All six candidates, including Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, Shiv Sena’s Anil Desai and the Congress’ Kumar Ketkar, on Thursday appeared poised to get elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, after the ruling BJP withdrew its fourth candidate from the RS poll fray.
Shortly before the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations ended, BJP’s Vijaya Rahatkar — who is the chairperson of the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission — withdrew her papers, leaving six candidates in the fray for as many Rajya Sabha seats from the State.
Confirming the development, Maharashtra’s legislative Affairs Minister Girish Bapat of the BJP said: “We have withdrawn Rahatkar’s candidature on Thursday. Our party has three candidates in the fray”.
Apart from Javdekar (BJP), Desai ( Sena) and Ketkar ( Congress), three others who are all set to get unopposed are: Narayan Rane, Vellamvelly Muraleedharan from Kerala ( both from the BJP) and Vandana Chavan (NCP).
Though the BJP’s official line was that it had fielded Rahatkar as a “dummy” candidate who would have replaced the party’s third candidate Muraleedharan if any problem arose with regard to his nomination, the principal ruling party had considered Rahatkar’s candidature in the hope that its ally Shiv Sena with a strength of 63 MlAs might pitch in its at least 15 of its surplus first preference votes to her and it might rope in some Congress rebels and independents to see her through the election. Informed sources said that the BJP withdrew Rahatkar’s papers from the poll fray at the last minute after it realised that the Sena was in no mood to spare minimum of its 15 surplus votes to her. With a strength of 122 MlAs in the 288-member Assembly and support from some independents, the BJP could have in the normal course ensured the election of three of its candidates.
With the BJP withdrawing its fourth candidate from the RS poll fray, the ruling Congress and NCP heaved a sigh of relief. The relief experienced by the Congress and NCP should be seen in the light of the fact that they have a strength of 42 and 41 MlAs respectively, as against the strength of 48 MlAs required for the election of one candidate elected to Rajya Sabha from the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.
The presence of the fourth BJP candidate in the fray would have contributed to cross-voting in the polls and even caused an upset. In such a situation, senior journalist Kumar Ketkar, who had in the past refused the RS candidature offered by the Shiv Sena, would have pulled through the election with the Sena’s support. NCP candidate Vandana Chavan would have struggled to get elected.
Meanwhile, journalist Kumar Ketkar’s nomination as the Congress candidate has caused resentment in certain quarters of the party. Party’s senior State leader and spokesperson for a long time Ratnakar Mahajan was expecting his nomination to the polls.
However, informed party sources said that Ketkar’s proximity to Sam Pitroda, a close aide of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, helped the senior journalist get a formal nod for his candidature from the party’s leadership.
Similarly, there is undercurrent of unhappiness within certain sections of the BJP over Muraleedharan’s nomination for the RS polls on the ground that he is not from Maharashtra. Understandably enough, no one is speaking openly against the nomination of the BJP’s Kerala unit president as the party’s candidate from Maharashtra.