Visuals from luxury bus in which Shiv Sena MLAs will be sent to a hotel
Rajya Sabha electionsThe Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on Monday shifted its party MLAs to a hotel in Malad, just four days before the Rajya Sabha elections. Sources say that this step has been taken to thwart any bid for horse-trading ahead of the elections.
Earlier in the day, Thackeray had met his MLAs at his official residence ‘Varsha’. Sanjay Raut, Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai were some prominent leaders present in the meeting.
Soon after the meeting, the MLAs were seen boarding a luxury bus along with policemen. They will be sent to The Retreat Hotel on Mud-Marve Road. On Tuesday, Thackeray will hold a meeting with MLAs of Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, independents and smaller parties of Maha Vikas Aghadi at Hotel Trident. Then all the MLAs of MVA alliance will be put together.
Voting will be held on June 10 for six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra. However, seven candidates are in the fray for the elections, for which the state assembly forms the electoral college.
Maharashtra has six seats
Elections will be held for six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena nominated Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. With its strength in the state assembly, BJP can win two Rajya Sabha seats on its own. Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena may win one seat each. However, Shiv Sena has fielded two candidates-Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar and is relying on surplus votes of Congress and NCP for victory.
The MVA government fielded four candidates. The BJP nominated Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik.
The NCP has fielded Praful Patel, while the Congress has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi. The NCP had already sought permission for its two jailed leaders, Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh, to vote in the elections.