Mumbai, March 5: Six candidates from the Mahayuti alliance, including Union Minister Ramdas Athawale and BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde, along with opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) nominee and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, filed their nominations on Thursday for the seven Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra that will become vacant next month.
Besides the four BJP candidates, the NCP fielded the late Ajit Pawar's son, Parth Pawar, while the Shiv Sena gave an opportunity to its party spokesperson, Jyoti Waghmare, to contest in the Upper House of Parliament.
Today was the last date for filing nominations, which was until 3 PM, while withdrawals can be made until March 9. The polling is scheduled for March 16.
The ruling BJP fielded its General Secretary, Vinod Tawde, Union Minister of State for Social Justice, Ramdas Athawale, former Nagpur Mayor and sitting Corporator, Maya Chintaman Ivnate, and former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLC, Ramrao Wadkute, for the biennial elections. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis accompanied the BJP candidates during the filing of nominations.
Tawde, a former MLC, won the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections for the first time and served as the state's education minister. Although he was denied a ticket in the 2019 Assembly polls, he was later elevated to the national level in the party and is currently its general secretary.
Wadkute, once considered a close associate of Sharad Pawar in the undivided NCP, hails from the Hatkar community in the Marathwada region. He was earlier elected to the legislative council with Sharad Pawar's backing before joining the BJP. Ivnate served as the first Mayor of Nagpur from a tribal background.
The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena fielded party spokesperson, Jyoti Waghmare, amid speculation that former Lok Sabha MP, Rahul Shewale, a close aide of Shinde, would be nominated to the Upper House of Parliament. He had lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Sharad Pawar is set to get a fresh Rajya Sabha term after the Congress on Wednesday declared support to him as the opposition bloc's candidate from Maharashtra for the lone Rajya Sabha seat it can win out of the total seven.
The decision, announced by AICC General Secretary, Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday, ended days of speculation about the MVA candidate as all three allies - Congress, NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena(UBT) - had staked claim to the lone seat the bloc can win given their strength in the Assembly.
As Sharad Pawar is recovering from illness, the legislative staff on behalf of the electoral officer visited his residence in south Mumbai and took oath.
Thereafter, necessary formalities with regard to submission of his nomination was completed by his lawyer accompanied by his daughter and MP, Supriya Sule, and other party leaders.
The late Ajit Pawar's son, Parth Pawar, is contesting from the ruling NCP. He had earlier tried his electoral luck in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Maval constituency, but could not win. He was recently in the news after a controversial land deal in Pune's Mundhwa sparked outrage. The Rs 300-crore deal to sell the 40-acre land parcel to Amadea Enterprises LLP, in which Parth holds 99 per cent stakes, came under the scanner after it emerged that the land belongs to the government, and the firm was exempted from paying the stamp duty. The deal was subsequently cancelled.
Parth's mother, Sunetra Pawar, who became the Deputy CM of Maharashtra following her husband Ajit Pawar's death in a plane crash on January 28, continues to be a Rajya Sabha member. She has not tendered her resignation of the Rajya Sabha membership so far.
The Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra whose six-year term is ending in April are: Sharad Pawar, Ramdas Athawale, Fauzia Khan of NCP(SP), Rajni Patil (Congress), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena-UBT), and Dhananjay Patil and Bhagwat Karad (both from the BJP). The MVA's combined tally translates into the assured election of one candidate.
By this arithmetic, the Mahayuti alliance can win six of the seven seats, subject to cross-voting or strategic transfers under the preferential voting system. Two independents, Umesh Mhetre and K Sainna, have also filed their nominations but they are expected to be rejected based on the procedural anomalies.
