Sharad Pawar to Rajya Sabha? No final decision yet, say Congress, Sena (UBT)
As pressure mounts for one more term for Sharad Pawar
Pawar had told me he wants to contest for the Rajya Sabha seat. If Pawar is keen to become Rajya Sabha MP again, the MVA will take a call on it, he had said. Amid speculation that the Maha Vikas Aghadi has finalised the name of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar for the Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra, both the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) on Tuesday said no final decision has been taken as yet.
“NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule and Jayant Patil met Uddhav Thackeray at Matoshri today… No decision has been made on the Rajya Sabha seat as yet and will be made soon,” said Aaditya Thackeray in a social media post.
Congress MLC Satej Patil rejected speculation that Sharad Pawar’s name was finalised for the RS seat from Maharashtra. He however said the NCP (SP) wants Pawar to be fielded by the MVA. “The MVA has not taken any decision so far regarding who should be nominated for the RS seat from Maharashtra. We will be holding the discussions in next two days and will finalise the name,” Patil said.
Patil said though the NCP (SP) want Pawar to be fielded by MVA, there are some claimants from both Sena and Congress. “From our side we have a few names like Balasaheb Thorat and Sachin Sawant and a few senior Congress leaders. Similarly, in Sena too senior party leaders are seeking the RS nomination. On the other hand, the NCP (SP) wants Pawar to be fielded. MVA leaders will sit, discuss and then take a unanimous decision,” Patil said.
When asked whether Sharad Pawar will contest the Rajya Sabha seat, Supriya Sule, MP and working president of NCP (SP), said, “We will want him to.”
The NCP (SP) leaders have met the Congress national leadership and tried to convince them to give Sharad Pawar one last opportunity to. The Congress leadership has apparently agreed, a senior party leader said.
Party sources said the Congress needs two MPs to keep the opposition leader’s post with it in Rajya Sabha. When he was asked about speculation that Pawar might in future join the BJP-led NDA, Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut dismissed the possibility. “This is all a figment of imagination. I have known Sharad Pawar for years. I can say with certainty that Sharad Pawar will never go with NDA,” Raut had told media persons yesterday.
Last month, Raut had claimed that Sharad Pawar was keen on going to Rajya Sabha once again. “I recently met Sharad Pawar and asked him whether he wants to go to Rajya Sabha again. Pawar had told me he wants to contest for the Rajya Sabha seat. If Pawar is keen to become Rajya Sabha MP again, the MVA will take a call on it,” he had said.
The terms of as many as seven Rajya Sabha MPs from Maharashtra will come to end in April, with Sharad Pawar being one of them. The Sena has the highest MLAs at 20, followed by Congress, 16, and NCP (SP), 10. With a strength of 235 MLAs, the Mahayuti can get six MPs elected comfortably. Similarly the MVA with a combined strength of 46 MLAs can get a lone Rajya Sabha MP elected.
The election to the 37 seats of Rajya Sabha in the country will be held on March 16. There are seven seats in Maharashtra, followed by 6 in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal has 5, Odisha has 4, Assam has 3, Telangana 2. Chhatisgarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh has one seat each.
The BJP-led Mahayuti has numbers on its side to get six MPs elected. Of the six, BJP will have four, Shiv Sena one and NCP one. From NCP, the name of Parth Pawar, son of Ajit Pawar, has been finalised, sources said. The Shinde Sena has not yet finalised the name of its candidate. Thursday is the last day for filing the nomination for Rajya Sabha seat.
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