As reported earlier, elections to 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states are scheduled for March 16, while the tenure of seven MPs from Maharashtra, including that of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, will come to an end shortly.
File Photo: IANS
The top leadership of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has decided to send the late Ajit Pawar’s son Parth Pawar to the Rajya Sabha, party sources said here on Wednesday.
As reported earlier, elections to 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states are scheduled for March 16, while the tenure of seven MPs from Maharashtra, including that of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, will come to an end shortly.
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Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are the ones who vote for candidates to the Rajya Sabha, and 36 legislative assembly seats are needed to contest these seven Rajya Sabha seats.
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Since the BJP-led NDA’s thumping victory in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, six out of these seven Rajya Sabha seats are likely to go to the NDA, leaving just one Rajya Sabha seat for the entire Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) opposition.
Out of the six Rajya Sabha seats for the NDA, the BJP alone is likely to claim three Rajya Sabha seats, while two Rajya Sabha seats would go to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and one Rajya Sabha seat would go to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. It is this one Rajya Sabha seat that is very likely to be given to Parth Pawar.
Earlier, Parth Pawar had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Maval assembly constituency, but he ended up losing by a huge margin to the then-undivided Shiv Sena candidate Shrirang Barne.
Parth Pawar had been accused of illegally selling government land in Pune’s Mundhwa, but neither an FIR was registered against him nor did the Kharge Committee recommend any action against him.
Party sources also said that Parth Pawar’s mother, Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, who is neither a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) nor a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Maharashtra, plans to contest the Baramati Assembly by-poll in six months, when it is announced by the Maharashtra State Election Commission.
It was Parth Pawar’s late father, Ajit Pawar, who represented the Baramati assembly constituency for a record eight times, but is unrepresented now after his tragic demise in the January 28 air crash.
According to Ajit Pawar-led NCP sources, Parth Pawar’s mother, Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar, will contest the by-poll for the now vacant assembly seat within six months.
Efforts are on to formally appoint Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar as the national president of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP soon, party sources confirmed.
These developments have led political observers in Maharashtra to speculate about the possibility of the Congress-led opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) choosing to send NCP founder Sharad Pawar to the Rajya Sabha through the Maharashtra opposition’s only Rajya Sabha seat. If that happens, Parth Pawar will be in the Rajya Sabha from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP as part of the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, while the MVA opposition in Maharashtra will be represented in the Rajya Sabha by Parth Pawar’s grand uncle Sharad Pawar.
In a related development, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena MLA representing Worli assembly constituency, Aaditya Thackeray, told media persons here on Wednesday that, “Regarding the Rajya Sabha seat, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) meeting has not been held yet, but we are fighting the BJP as part of the MVA. Mumbai is being mismanaged, and the Constitution is being attacked. We are fighting against this along with the Congress”.
Talking about the principle behind seat distribution, Aaditya Thackeray said, “If we look at the principle of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), those who have more seats should be given the first chance (to the Rajya Sabha). According to this principle, the (Uddhav Thackeray-led) Shiv Sena should get the first chance”.
Yet, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and chief Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut has hinted several times recently that NCP founder Sharad Pawar would be the best person to represent the MVA opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
Reacting to Sanjay Raut’s stand, BJP spokesperson Navnath Ban said here on Wednesday that “Sanjay Raut has played a cunning trick to cut off Priyanka Chaturvedi’s (Uddhav-led Shiv Sena) Rajya Sabha candidature to the Rajya Sabha by supporting Sharad Pawar’s name for the Rajya Sabha. Raut, who is supposed to be a staunch supporter of Aaditya Thackeray, has dropped Priyanka Chaturvedi’s name and put forward Sharad Pawar’s name for the Rajya Sabha. This shows how much he values Aaditya Thackeray. Raut played this trick because he knows that if Priyanka Chaturvedi gets a chance to contest the election to the Rajya Sabha this year, she will never get another chance after Raut’s Rajya Sabha term ends”.
“No matter how much Congress Maharashtra State President Harshvardhan Sapkal aspires for the Congress to be in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress’s position in the MVA is negligible. The Congress will not get a chance in either the Rajya Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Sharad Pawar will be in the Rajya Sabha, and Uddhav Thackeray will be in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. So Congress is being utilised on a ‘use and throw basis’ in the MVA,” BJP spokesperson Navnath Ban said.
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