Shiv Sena gets short-changed in RS polls by NCP despite being dominant MVA partner

Mumbai: Twelve candidate’s, seven from Maharashtra and five from Bihar have been officially declared “elected unopposed” in the March 26 biennial elections to 55 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 17 states in the country. Prominent among those who have been officially declared unopposed include – Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, RPI-A leader and Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale, Udayanraje Bhosale, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shiv Sena among others.

Besides these, the other three candidate’s to get elected unopposed from Maharashtra include – Fouzia Khan (NCP), Rajiv Satav, Congress and Dr Bhagwat Karad (BJP).

Apart from these five candidate’s from Bihar also have been declared elected unopposed, they include – Harivansh Narayan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur (both Janata Dal – United – JD-U), Prem Chand Gupta and Amarendhari Singh (both Rashtriya Janata Dal – RJD) and Vivek Thakur (BJP).

March 18, 2020 was the last date for withdrawal of candidature for the March 26 biennial elections.

Going by the developments in the Supreme Court over the rebel MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, it does look like there will be voting held for the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Jharkhand.

In Maharashtra, though the Shiv Sena given its numerical strength of 56 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly appears to have been short-changed by its ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partner the NCP. Despite the fact that the NCP having 54 MLAs, two short than the Sena managed to get two MP’s elected unopposed, while the Sena despite being the dominant partner has had to settle for just one MP.

The BJP had the numbers to get two of its candidates elected comfortably and would have required five more votes if an election was forced to be held. The Congress appears to be content with the fact that it managed to retain its seat from Maharashtra.

Elsewhere, according to sources 24 candidates from seven states have also been elected unopposed. The official announcement from the ECI is awaited. These states include – Andhra Pradesh 4 seats, Assam 3, Odisha 4, Tamil Nadu 5, Himachal Pradesh 1, Chhattisgarh 2 and West Bengal 5 seats.

Prominent among those who are reported to have been declared elected unopposed, state and party wise include – all 4 YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) candidates from Andhra Pradesh which includes Parimal Nathwani, 3 from Assam – Biswajit Daimary (Bodo Peoples Front – BJP ally), Bhuwaneshwar Kalita (BJP), Ajitkumar Bhuyan (Congress – supported by AIUDF), Odisha – all 4 Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidates – Subhas Singh, Munna Khan, Sujit Kumar and Mamata Mohanta, Tamil Nadu – M Thambidurai and K P Munuswamy (both AIADMK), G K Vasan (TMC), Tiruchi Siva and N R Elango (both DMK)

Himalchal Pradesh – lone BJP candidate Indu Goswami has been elected unopposed. Chhattisgarh – both Congress candidates – noted Supreme Court lawyer K T S Tulsi and Phulo Devi Netam are elected unopposed. In West Bengal, the following have been elected unopposed – Dinesh Trivedi, Arpita Ghosh, Mausam Noor and Subrata Bakshi (all AITC or TMC), and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya of the CPI-M.

Apart from the legal wrangles in Madhya Pradesh, elections appear to be on the cards in Haryana, Jharkhand and Meghalaya as well given the total number of candidate’s exceeding the total number of vacancies.

In Haryana there are three candidates in the poll fray for the two clear vacancies, and they are – Deepender Singh Hooda (Congress), Dushyant Gautam and Ram Chander Jangra (both BJP). In Jharkhand too, there are three candidates – Shibu Soren (JMM), Deepak Prakash (BJP) and Shahsada Anwar (Congress). In Meghalaya, there are two candidates in the fray for the lone seat – Wanweiroy Kharlukhi (NPP – BJP ally) and Kennedy Cornelius Khylem (Congress).

In Madhya Pradesh there are three vacancies, and both the BJP and the Congress have fielded three candidates each. The BJP has fielded – Jyotiraditya Scindia, Dr Sumer Singh Solanki and Ranjana Baghel. Whereas, the Congress has fielded – Digvijaya Singh, Phool Singh Baraiya and Ramdas Dahiwale.

In Rajasthan there are three vacancies and four candidates in the poll fray. Here the BJP has fielded – Rajendra Gehlot and Onkar Singh. The Congress has fielded – K C Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi. In Gujarat there are four vacancies and four candidates in the fray. The BJP has fielded – Abhay Bharadwaj and Ramilaben Bara. The Congress has fielded – Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki.

Out of the 55 seats that were falling vacant in April 2020, the party wise vacancies was as follows – BJP 15, Congress 13, AITC 4, AIADMK 4, BJD 3, JD-U 3, Independents 3, NCP 2, DMK, CPI-M, RJD, Shiv Sena, TDP, BPF and RPI-A all 1 each.