Rajya Sabha Election 2022: All candidates will win, say MVA leaders

Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. File Pic

With a close contest being played out between the state's ruling Shiv Sena and the opposition BJP for the sixth seat, voting for six seats of the Rajya Sabha in Maharashtra is underway at the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex.

As the Maharashtra MLAs reached Vidhan Sabha in Mumbai for the Rajya Sabha elections, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, "All four candidates of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will win. We have full support."

Even Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said that all four candidates of MVA will win in the first preference vote itself.

While speaking about the Rajya Sabha polls, Maharashtra minister Aslam Shaikh said: "Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has got numbers and strength. All the candidates from MVA are going to win. AIMIM and SP have always been with us. Everything has become clear today."

Congress Maharashtra president Nana Patole said that he does not understand the basis of BJP's claims. "...Our strength is more, so all the four MVA candidates will win. (Even) if two MLAs are not allowed to vote, the number of 41 MLAs will be sufficient to elect a Rajya Sabha MP," he said.

Patole also said that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has extended its support to the MVA.

Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident of winning the Rajya Sabha elections. Maharashtra legislative council LoP Pravin Darekar said, "The BJP candidates will win."

The polling process, which commenced at 9 am, will end at 4 pm and the results will be declared this evening. There are a total of seven candidates in the fray for six seats.

BJP has fielded Union minister Piyush Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde and former MP Dhananjay Mahadik, and Shiv Sena has given opportunity to MP Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. From the NCP, Praful Patel is in the election ring, while the Congress has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi.

The contest will be primarily for the sixth seat between BJP's Mahadik and Sena's Pawar. This is after more than two decades that Maharashtra is witnessing a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls.

The 288-member Legislative Assembly is the electoral college for the biennial elections. But the total votes have come down to 285 since there is a vacancy due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke and a special court on Thursday rejecting the pleas filed by minister Nawab Malik and former minister Anil Deshmukh seeking a day's bail to vote in the elections.