Mumbai: Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti is facing an internal power tussle over the legislative council (MLC) polls scheduled later this month.
After contesting the Lok Sabha elections jointly, the parties of the alliance — the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — are likely to test their strength against each other in at least some of the four seats in the biennial MLC elections to teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies, scheduled to be held on 26 June.
All three parties have named candidates in some of the four seats going to the polls.
Sanjay Shirsat, a senior MLA and spokesperson from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, told ThePrint, “So far, candidates from the three parties have only been named and collected nomination forms. These forms have not been filled and submitted. There is time for that. In the next couple of days, senior leaders from the Mahayuti will hold a meeting and decide whether to contest the polls jointly or not.”
BJP Maharashtra spokesperson Keshav Upadhye also said there would be talks between the three parties on the polls. “There’s still time for us to have a discussion about this,” he told ThePrint.
The last date for submission of nomination forms for the four MLC seats — Konkan graduates’ constituency, Mumbai graduates’ constituency, Mumbai teachers’ constituency and Nashik teachers’ constituency — is 7 June. The results will be declared on 1 July.
In the Lok Sabha elections. too, the Mahayuti parties took a long time to arrive at a consensus over seat-sharing and candidates, leaving it to the last minute.
Eventually, of Maharashtra’s 48 seats, the BJP contested 28, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena contested 15 and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP contested four. One went to Mahadev Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha.
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena was able to get most of the seats it wanted, such as Mumbai South, Thane and Nashik, at the expense of its alliance partners.
Meanwhile, leaders from the NCP who felt their party was shortchanged, have already started demanding 80 to 90 seats to contest in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly polls later this year.
Contest within Mahayuti
The BJP has announced candidates in three seats going for the polls. The party Monday nominated Niranjan Davkhare from the Konkan graduates’ constituency, Kiran Shelar from the Mumbai graduates’ constituency and Shivnath Darade from the Mumbai teachers’ constituency.
Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena Monday nominated party secretary Sanjay More from the Konkan graduates’ constituency after the BJP published its list.
Last week, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP had unilaterally announced a candidate, Shivajirao Nalawade, from the Mumbai teachers’ constituency.
Similarly, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which supported the Mahayuti for the Lok Sabha election, last week announced its candidate, Abhijit Panse, from the Konkan graduates’ constituency. The MNS had not contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking to reporters in Ratnagiri on Sunday, Panse said, “We have been preparing to fight this election for a year. There is no question of taking the candidature back as Raj saheb announced my name.” He said the MNS would “100 percent fight” even if the BJP put up its candidate.
The Mahayuti parties are yet to name candidates for the Nashik seat. As of now, the Konkan graduates’ constituency seat is held by BJP’s Davkhare, the Mumbai graduates’ seat is by Vilas Potnis of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Mumbai teachers’ constituency is represented by Kapil Patil of the JD(U) and the Nashik teachers seat is represented by Kishor Darade, an Independent. Their terms are expiring on 7 July.
From the Opposition’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) camp, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has so far given nominationd to Anil Parab, an MLC, from the Mumbai graduates’ constituency and party functionary J.M. Abhyankar from the Mumbai teachers’ constituency.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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