BJP can take control of the upper house if it wants to, as it has the majority
Mumbai: Finally, officially Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has been declared elected ‘unopposed’ to the Legislative Council from the Elected by MLAs (EMLA) constituency on Thursday. With this the Sword of Damocles that was hanging over his head has vanished and now he and the Shiv Sena can heave a sigh of relief that the Chief Ministers chair is safe for now. All this has come at the expense of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the driver’s seat in the upper house.
It is not just Uddhav Thackeray who has been able to retain his CMs chair, his party colleague Dr Neelam Gorhe too gets to retain her post of the Deputy Chairman in the Legislative Council.
On the last day of withdrawal of nomination papers on May 14, only 9 candidates had remained in the fray for the 9 vacancies to be filled in the upper house. These included – Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke, Ranjitsinha Vijaysinha Mohite-Patil and Ramesh K Karad (all BJP), Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Legislative Council Deputy Chairman Dr Neelam Gorhe (both Shiv Sena), Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari (both NCP) and Rajesh D Rathod (Congress) were left in the fray. The Election Commission of India (ECI) officially declared all the 9 remaining candidates in the fray as elected ‘unopposed’.
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Out of the 13 candidates that had remained in the poll fray on May 11; the BJP withdrew its official candidate Dr Ajeet Gopchade and its dummy candidate Sandeep Lele from the poll fray. Likewise, the NCP too withdrew its two dummy candidates – Kiran Pawaskar and Shivajirao Garje from the poll fray. The nomination papers of the lone Independent candidate Shehbaj Alauddin Rathod had been rejected as it did not have the required names and signatures of 10 proposers and seconders.
In the process, the NCP which had earlier held 3 seats out of the 9 seats in 2014, has now won just 2 seats. In the case of the Congress which had held 2 seats in 2014, has now to remain content with just 1 seat.
As against this the opposition BJP which had won 3 seats out of the 9 seats in 2014-19, has now won 4 seats. Likewise, the Sena which had won just 1 seat in 2014 that of Dr Neelam Gorhe, who later on became the Deputy Chairman of the upper house in 2019. But in the process of ensuring safe passage to Uddhav Thackeray and also helping him retain his CM post, its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies the Congress and NCP appear to have paid a price for it by foregoing their quota seat.
However, in the process the BJP despite lacking in the numbers game managed to wrest one seat from the ruling Congress and NCP.
The latest party wise strength in the 78 member Legislative Council after this election is as follows: BJP 23, Shiv Sena 14, NCP 14, Congress 12, Independent’s 6, Vacancies 5, Lok Bharti 1, PRP 1, PWP-I 1 and RSP 1.
Although occupying the opposition benches in the upper house, in the numbers game the BJP is in the majority. Irony of it is that both the posts of Chairman and Deputy Chairman in the Legislative Council are with the NCP and the Sena. Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar of the NCP is the Chairman and Dr Neelam Gorhe is the Deputy Chairman in the Legislative Council.
For better part of its five year rule from 2014 to 2019, the BJP despite being in power was at the mercy of the then opposition NCP-Congress combine in the upper house which was in the majority then. Now the tables have turned at least in the upper house and the BJP is in a position to repay the NCP-Congress-Sena back in the same coin. It remains to be seen whether the BJP will be keen to unseat the NCP and Sena from the two posts in the upper house through a no trust move and pose some problems in the long run, or use its numerical majority as a bargaining chip.
