Ignoring the reported claims by Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji’s direct descendent Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, the ruling Shiv Sena on Tuesday decided to nominate its Kolhapur district party chief Sanjay Pawar for the biennial RS polls scheduled for June 10.
Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray decided to nominate his party loyalist Pawar for the RS polls, after Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati refused to join the Sena to contest the biennial polls.
Speculation is rife in the state political circles that Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati might contest the RS polls with the support of the Opposition BJP.
Announcing Pawar’s nomination for the RS polls, Sena’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said: “We have full respect for Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati... Sambhaji Pawar’s name was cleared by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. We will make a formal announcement in this regard in the coming days”.
The RS polls from Maharashtra have been necessitated by the impending retirement of six sitting MPs --Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, former Union Finance Minister and senior Congress Minister P Chidambaram, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut, former Union Minister and NCP leader Praful Patel, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Vikas Mahatme, both from the BJP, on July 4, 2022. They are among the 57 RS members whose terms will end on different dates in the coming weeks.
The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has a strength of 170 MLAs — Shiv Sena 55 (one MLA Ramesh Latke, died in Dubai last week), NCP 53, Congress 44, smaller parties/groups 10 and 8 Independents. The Opposition BJP has 106 and it enjoys the support of five Independent MLAs and two MLAs from smaller parties.
As per the understanding reached among them on the basis of their respective strengths in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the ruling Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress will get to contest one seat each. For winning a RS seat, the approximate number of votes required is 42. After winning one seat each, the MVA will still have additional 44 MLAs with whose support it can win one more RS seat. In the normal course, the additional RS seat was allotted to the NCP. However, NVP chief Sharad Pawar has chosen to set aside the seat for the ruling Shiv Sena as a gesture of good will.
On its part, the BJP — given its strength — can win two RS seats comfortably. If it is contest for the third seat, the BJP will have to engineer cross-voting in the polls. It remains to be seen if the BJP will put up its third candidate in the RS polls, despite the fact that it does not have the strength.
For the six seats, the outgoing RS members Sanjay Raut ( Shiv Sena) Goyal, (BJP), Praful Patel (NCP) will in all likelihood be re-nominated, while Chidambaram stands a strong chance of being re-nominated. The Shiv Sena is putting up Sanjay Pawar as its second candidate. It remains to be seen if the BJP re-nominate its two sitting RS members Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Vikas Mahatme or replace them with others.
The nominations for the June 10 RS polls began on Tuesday, while the last date for nominations is May 31. The nominations will be scrutinised on June 1, while the deadline for withdrawals is June 3.