It is BJP vs Shiv Sena again in Rajya Sabha elections amid charges of horse-trading

Denying charges of horse trading in the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls in which it has fielded three official candidates the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP has asked the MVA indirectly the Shiv Sena to withdraw one of its candidates to make the elections unopposed However the Sena which is the BJPrsquos main target in these polls has exuded confidence of winning comfortably with not only its two candidates but also two others from its alliesThe Congress dared the BJP to show a magic number needed to win all the three seatsAll party official candidates had filed their nominations by Monday afternoon The polling will be conducted on June 10 if there arenrsquot as many candidates for six vacancies after the date of withdrawalPiyush Goyal said the BJP was placed comfortably for winningA heated argument began Monday morning after the BJPrsquos union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal former state agriculture minister Dr Anil Bonde and former Kolhapur MP Dhananjay Mahadik were finalised for three vacancies that have been created because of the retirement of Goyal who has been retained and outgoing MPs Dr Vikas Mahatme and Dr Vinay SahrasbuddheThe Sena has repeated a threetime MP and partyrsquos chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut and a districtlevel office bearer from Kolhapur Sanjay Pawar The Congress shifted its senior leader P Chidambaram from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu to accommodate a junior leader from Uttar Pradesh and president of the partyrsquos National Minority Department Imran Pratapgarhi One of the Nationalist Congress Partyrsquos mainstays Praful Patel has been nominated for another termlsquoWithdraw if want unopposedrsquoSanjay Raut accused the BJP of being deliberate in fielding three candidates ldquoThe BJP wanted to field the third candidate since the beginning and was determined for horse trading But they misused Sambhajiraje Bhosale in their plan If there is horse trading the government will be watching it very closelyrdquo he said adding that the Sena will win its two seats and the Congress and NCP will also have no problems because the MVA had the votes required for four seats Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole dared the BJP to show a magic number needed to win three seats ldquoItrsquos been a practice in Maharashtra to have unopposed Rajya Sabha elections which are held by open ballotrdquo said Patole Maharashtra Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Imran Pratapgarhi after filing nomination papers on Monday PicPTIDismissing the charges former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said some nonBJP MLAs have consciously decided to vote for his partys candidates who are from Maharashtra and active in politics ldquoIt is up to them to decide Letrsquos have three each from both sides There will be no question of horse trading in that situationrdquo he said Goyal said the BJP was comfortably placed for winning ldquoThis election is an opportunity for the BJP to counter the Senarsquos betrayal of 2019 They won the MLAs with our support but betrayed the alliancerdquo How will the BJP do it Fadnavis said the partyrsquos strategy wasnrsquot for media consumption ldquoThose who plan donrsquot reveal it to the mediardquo he saidThe arithmeticIn preferential polling by the Assembly members a candidate will need a quota of 4101 votes to win The BJP has 106 MLAs the Shiv Sena has 55 NCP 53 and Congress 44 Others in the house aremdashthe Bahujan Vikas Aghadi 3 Samajwadi Party AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti Party 2 each MNS CPM Peasants and Workers Party Rashtriya Samaj Paksha Swabhimani Party Jansurajya Shakti and Krantikari Shetkari Party 1 each There are 13 Independents One seat of the Sena is vacantExperts said the BJP will have 22 surplus votes and the party claimed to have the support of 8 independents It will need another 12 On the other hand the MVA together claims to have 169 members on its side which in absence of cross voting will be sufficient for its four candidatesSanjay Raut spokesperson Shiv SenaldquoThere could be only one possibility in the elections if held ndash either the Sena or the BJP lose one candidate because the Congress and NCP will have their candidates secured with the first preference votes It depends on how the preferential votes are distributed between the candidates Even a decimal makes a lot of differencerdquo said an official who has been part of the election and counting process in the pastRule in questionThere is a strict rule in place for the party MLAs who must show their votes to the election agent present at the polling booth or else face disqualification for violating the official orders However there is a debate whether such a strict rule applies to independent MLAs Insisting that there will be elections this time instead of unopposed selection deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had told the media last week that there could be an issue as far as independents were concerned Sources said the matter may even go to the courtsBJPrsquos third candidate Mahadik whose fate depends on the partyrsquos jugad said his seniors had taken a decision of fielding him following due diligence ldquoArithmetic is on We need 10 more votes to win the third candidaterdquo he said