Numbers in MVA’s favour, it will win four seats: Sanjay Raut on RS polls in Maha

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Expressing confidence that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will win four Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra, polling for which was held on Friday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the ruling alliance has numbers in its favour.

Talking to reporters, Raut, who was one of the candidates of the Sena in this election, said an atmosphere was being created that the contest would be tough.

“But this is incorrect…An illusion is being created in Maharashtra,” he claimed.

“The MVA (comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) under the leadership of Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has the support of 179 MLAs. There is one MLA less due to the demise of (Sena legislator) Ramesh Latke. You will see these numbers (are) clearly (with us) in today’s polls,” Raut said.

Voting for six Rajya Sabha seats was held at the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex here. The polling process was conducted between 9 am and 4 pm and the results will be declared in the evening.

There were a total of seven candidates in the fray for six seats. While the BJP had fielded Union minister Piyush Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde and former MP Dhananjay Mahadik, the Shiv Sena had given opportunity to MP Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. From the NCP, Praful Patel was in the election ring, while the Congress had fielded Imran Pratapgarhi.

The contest was primarily for the sixth seat – between BJP’s Mahadik and Sena’s Pawar. This was after more than two decades that Maharashtra witnessed a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls.

The 288-member Legislative Assembly was 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.