Shiv Sena’s deputy leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress general secretary Rajiv Satav, NCP’s former Minister Fauzia Khan and BJP’s Bhagwat Karad on Friday filed nominations for the March 26 Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra.
Friday was the last day for the elections to seven Rajya Sabha seats from the State.
NCP president Sharad Pawar and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, both sitting Rajya Sabha members, and BJP leader Udayanraje Bhosale, 13th descendant of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, had already filed their papers for the March 26 polls.
The elections to seven RS from Maharashtra have been necessitated by the impending end of the terms of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Union minister Ramdas Athawale, Congress' Hussain Dalwai, Sena's Rajkumar Dhoot, BJP's Amar Sable, BJP-backed Independent Sanjay Kakade and NCP's Majeed Memon, on April 2.
Karad, a former Mayor of Aurangabad, filed the nomination on behalf of the BJP. He was accompanied by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra adnavis, state BJP president Chandrakant Patil and ex-state minister Pankaja Munde.
Incidentally, Karad is the third BJP candidate to have filed nomination for the polls after Athawale and Bhosale, who submitted their papers on Thursday. Athawale heads the RPI (Athawale), an ally of the BJP.
Though it has gone on expected lines, the Shiv Sena’s decision to nominate Priyanka Chaturvedi has sparked a debate within the state political circles in general and in the Sena circles in particular.
Informed party sources said that Priyanka had been hand-picked by Sena leader and minister Aditya Thackeray, whose recommendation of her name tilted the scale in her favour. The Sena announced Priyanka’s nomination after ignoring the claims of senior Shiv Sena leader Chandrakant Khaire.
A four-time MP from Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency, Khaire was trounced by AIMIM’s Imtiyaz Jaleel in 2019 polls. Khaire had been lobbying for his rehabilitation by way of nomination to contest the March 26 RS polls.
Priyanka’s nomination has apparently not taken kindly by Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut, who had till now become the face of the Shiv Sena in New Delhi. Now, he will have a completion in Priyanka who speaks well both in English and Hindi. In effect, the Shiv Sena will have a charming face in the national capital, in addition to Raut, who being a close aide of chief minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will have a bigger say in the party affairs.
As the lone candidate of Shiv Sena, Priyanka’s election to Rajya Sabha has become a mere formality. Her election to Rajya Sabha will come as a major break for Priyanka in her decade-long political career.
Priyanka, who worked as a director of a media and public relations firm in Mumbai, began her political career with the Congress party in 2010.
After working as the general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress from North-West Mumbai in 2012, she came to be appointed as the spokesperson of the All India Congress Committee.
However, on April 19, 2019, a miffed Priyanka joined the Shiv Sena after she quit the Congress in the wake of reinstatement of some Congress workers who had manhandled her during a press conference in Mathura in September 2018 and denial of party ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Mumbai.
Soon after she joined the Shiv Sena, the party leadership recognised her and appointed her as a deputy party leader.