Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday nominated Prof Jyoti Waghmare as the Shiv Sena candidate for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election in Maharashtra under the BJP-led Mahayuti ruling alliance. March 5 was the last day for filing nominations in Maharashtra.
Earlier on Thursday, Shinde initially decided to spring a surprise by announcing two candidates for the Rajya Sabha election, namely Professor Jyoti Waghmare and Rohit Tilak, who happens to be the great-grandson of Lokmanya Tilak, in a bid to pit Tilak against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) only Rajya Sabha candidate, NCP founder Sharad Pawar.
Yet, in a last-minute twist, while actually filing nominations at the Vidhan Bhavan here on Thursday, Shinde ensured that only one candidate, namely Professor Jyoti Waghmare, filed the nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election at the Vidhan Bhavan.
Consequently, it is now clear that the only opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections, NCP founder Sharad Pawar, will win unopposed.
As things stand, the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti has filed six nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections. The BJP has filed four nominations, while the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has filed one nomination for Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar’s elder son, Parth Pawar, and one nomination has been filed by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, whose candidate is Professor Jyoti Waghmare.
The development came a day after the BJP-led Mahayuti announced its candidates for Rajya Sabha elections, namely Vinod Tawde, Maya Chintaman Ivnate and Ramrao Wadkute, besides Republican Party of India President and Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale, even as the Ajit Pawar-led NCP nominated Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar’s elder son Parth Pawar, on Wednesday.
Scrutiny of applications will be completed on March 6 (Friday), while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 9 (Monday). The Rajya Sabha election is scheduled for March 16, and voting will be held from 9 am to 4 pm. Election results will be declared after 5 pm the same day.
According to sources, Shinde had been toying with a plan to defeat the only opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate, Sharad Pawar. Shinde’s calculation was that his Shiv Sena has an additional 20 votes from his party’s MLAs for the Rajya Sabha elections, while the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, which is another constituent of the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, has an additional three votes. Shinde believed that this gave him enough political leeway to pit a second Rajya Sabha candidate like Rohit Pawar against MVA’s Sharad Pawar, sources said.
Yet, at the last moment, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde chose not to field Rohit Pawar against MVA’s Sharad Pawar, sources said.
Therefore, only the Shinde Sena candidate Professor Jyoti Waghmare ended up filing her nomination at the Vidhan Bhavan on Thursday.
Shinde’s nominee Prof Jyoti Waghmare, who comes from the Ambedkarite movement, holds a PhD in English literature and speaks fluent Marathi as well as Telugu, which is her mother tongue. Her father used to be a corporator. She resigned her professorship in Solapur to enter active politics.
Professor Waghmare was the president of the Solapur City Mahila Congress in 2014. After joining the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in 2022, she was appointed as the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Maharashtra state spokesperson due to her aggressive style of oratory.
Meanwhile, NCP founder Sharad Pawar filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha election as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) candidate here on Thursday, though he was unable to file his nomination in person due to health reasons. Due to this, election officials went to Sharad Pawar’s ‘Silver Oak’ residence in South Mumbai and completed all the procedures. This is the first instance of its kind, where election officials went to the residence of a sick person who could not physically go to file his nomination for the Rajya Sabha election.
This method of filing nomination for the Rajya Sabha election was facilitated by a Supreme Court verdict in the Pashupatinath versus Harihar Prasad Singh case in 1968, according to which, if the candidate is unable to be physically present due to any valid reason, including health, it is mandatory to submit an affidavit in the prescribed form as per Article 84A of the Constitution.
Accordingly, JJ Hospital’s Superintendent Sanjay Suravase went to Sharad Pawar’s residence on Thursday, after which Sharad Pawar’s proposer Jayant Patil went to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and submitted Sharad Pawar’s application to the Election Officer.
All top leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) were present as Sharad Pawar filed his nomination here on Thursday, including Sharad Pawar-led NCP working president as well as Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, Uddhav Thackeray-led Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, senior Sharad Pawar-led NCP Jayant Patil, Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Rohit Pawar, Maharashtra Congress state unit president Harshvardhan Sapkal and senior leader Congress Vijay Wadettiwar.
However, Aditya Thackeray was absent at the event, leading to speculation in political circles.