New Delhi: With aspirants galore, Congress
leadership grappled with the issue of nominations for Rajya
Sabha and Legistlative Council Elections from Maharashtra at a
marathon meeting on Monday.
Senior leaders A K Antony and Ahmad Patel held parleys
with Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and PCC chief
Manikrao Thakre, ahead of the elections to six Rajya Sabha and
10 Legislative Council seats scheduled for next month.
Chavan also had a meeting with Congress president Sonia
Gandhi before the parleys began.
A section of Congress wants contest for the elections
to make inroads into the Shiv Sena-BJP votes as it feels the
opposition was not united.
There have been reports that moves were afoot between
the Maharashtra Congress and the Shiv Sena-BJP to ensure that
there is no contest for the elections as it is widely known
that major political parties can ensure victory of their
candidates without a fight.
Congress sources said the party has received 24
applications for Rajya Sabha and 129 for Legislative Council
seats.
The ruling Congress-NCP combine has 144 MLAs (Congress 82
and NCP 62) in the Assembly and enjoys the support of a
majority of 24 Independents. The saffron alliance’s strength
is 91 (BJP 46 and Shiv Sena 45).
While 42 first preference votes are required by a
candidate for a straight win in the Rajya Sabha poll, 27 votes
will see an aspirant through without any hindrance in the
elections to the Legislative Council.
Both Congress-NCP coalition and BJP-Sena combine can
secure easy victory for three and two candidates respectively
in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Congress-NCP combination, with support from majority of
Independents, can easily secure six Council seats and Sena-BJP
can bag three without a problem.
PTI
