Rajya Sabha Elections: With a Day to Go for Filling Nominations, MVA still Fighting over Sole Seat in Maharashtra
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 4: Even though only a day to go before the closing of filling of nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra is still looking for its candidate for the sole seat it can win in the upper house if presented a united front.
With each of its three alliance partners, the Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (SP), staking their respective claims for the seat, an unanimous decision on its candidate has become a Herculean task though it is pressed against time to take an immediate decision.
The ruling Mahayuti led by the BJP with Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the NCP s its alliance partners, which together is certain to win six of the seven seats at stake, has announced four candidates so far, including Parth Pawar, the son of the deceased NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who was killed in an air crash in January.
The Rajya Sabha elections are going to be held on March 16. Of the 37 seats from 10 States which will go to polls, seven seats are from Maharashtra. As per the formula and the strength of each alliance, the Mahayuti can get six candidates, while the MVA can get one candidate elected if the opposition arrives at a consensus over the candidate.
While NCP(SP) President and sitting Rajya Sabha member Sharad Pawar, whose term ends next month, has not yet officially spoken on the issue, his party has insisted that he should be named the MVA candidate. NCP(SP) State president Jayant Patil and MP Supriya Sule met Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday night to hold discussion on the issue.
“Congress and Shiv Sena will sit together with us. We will take a decision thereafter. No decision has been taken as yet. All of us insist that Pawar saaheb should be in Delhi for MVA and for NCP(SP),” Jayant Patil said on Wednesday. He refused to comment on questions about whether BJP will give only four candidates if Sharad Pawar files his nomination, but claimed that the MVA muddle would be sorted out in time. Sharad Pawar is slated to be discharged from a city hospital on Wednesday
Both the Sena and the Congress are also still in the fray. Refusing reports of a final decision on the matter, Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray said that no decision had been taken on the candidate so far. Sena has staked claim to the Rajya Sabha seat. The State Congress leadership wants the Rajya Sabha seat allocated to itself, but most of the leaders looked ready to give up the claim if Mr Sharad Pawar wanted another six-year term in the Upper House.
Meanwhile, the ruling Mahayuti has taken its first step. BJP announced its list of candidates for Maharashtra.
The leaders who will file their nominations are — Union minister and BJP ally Ramdas Athawale, senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde, Maya Invate and Ramrao Wadkute. Sources in Shiv Sena said they would like to have two Rajya Sabha members from their party. The last day for the filing of nominations is Thursday.
In Tamil Nadu, where the Congress and the ruling DMK are still fighting over seat allocations for the coming State Assembly elections, the Grand Old Party has at least made one thing clear, the electoral alliance between the two parties stays and the reported move for an alliance with actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) at the cost of the DMK has been given a go by.
The idea of forging an alliance with the TVK coming out of the shadow of the DMK was cultivated by some second-rung leaders in the Congress for vituperative personal reasons and used by those frustrated over seat-sharing issues as a bargaining chip, bringing the talks between the parties to a precipice. The alliance held, but the episode deserves examination, not just as a tactical question but as one which is core to the meaning of progressive politics in Tamil Nadu and what is at stake to preserve it.
The TVK has turned out to be a fledgling force. The Karur stampede incident last year in which 41 of the actor’s fan followers were crushed to death has not only proved the party’s incapacity at organising such rallies, it has also established that the party’s rallies are designed primarily to showcase frenzied crowds rather than communicate any substantive political message.
Vijay’s arrival at Karur was deliberately delayed by nearly seven hours to maximise crowd size. Organisers grossly underestimated attendance, expecting 10,000 but drawing over 25,000, and the crowd waited for hours without basic provisions before the actor spoke briefly and fled the venue as did other lieutenants of his party.
Rather than accepting responsibility, the TVK flooded social media with conspiracy theories suggesting sabotage, despite no evidence. The party relies on whipping up mass hysteria as a means of mobilisation and a personality cult instead of ideology. There is the token presence of visages of leaders such as Periyar, Ambedkar, and Kamaraj on rally backdrops, but the party merely pays lip service to them. Its political project has been built almost entirely like a fan club rather than a democratic party.
