Maharashtra Rajya Sabha election: MVA to move its MLAs to Mumbai hotel till June 10

Just days ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, the ruling partner in the MVA coalition, Shiv Sena has decided to shift all its MLAs to Mumbai amid fears of horse-trading by the Opposition. The party has made arrangements to lodge them up at a hotel in south Mumbai hotel till elections for the six Rajya Sabha seats conclude.

Prior to this, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will hold a key meeting of all legislators supporting the MVA government. MLAs of Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress as well as legislators from smaller parties and Independents are expected to join the meeting at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai on Tuesday, June 7. The MLAs will spend the next three days at the hotel.

As per sources, Congress and NCP are also preparing a strategy to keep all their MLAs as well as Independents and legislators of allied parties together to avoid the risk of cross-voting.

In Maharashtra, 6 seats are up for grabs due to the impending retirement of BJP's Piyush Goyal, Vinay Sahastrabuddhe, Congress' Vikas Mahatme, and P Chidambaram. The terms of NCP MP Praful Patel and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut also end on June 10. Based on their current strength in the Assembly, Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress are confident of winning one seat each, whereas BJP is poised to win two seats.

Shiv Sena, BJP contest over sixth RS seat

In all, seven candidates are in the fray for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The BJP has fielded Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde, and ex-MP Dhananjay Mahadik, while Shiv Sena has placed two candidates - Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. NCP has renominated Praful Patel, while Congress has Imran Pratapgarhi. The battle for the sixth seat is between BJP's Mahadik and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar.

In the 288-member assembly, Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP 53, Congress 44 and BJP 106, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) three, two each from AIMIM, Samajwadi Party, and Prahar Janshakti Party, one each from CPI(M), PWP, MNS, Swabhimani Party, Jansurajya Party, Rashtriya Samaj Party, and Krantikari Shetkari Party, independents 13 and there is one vacancy due to Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke's recent demise. Also, two NCP MLAs Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are in prison.