Political equations in Maharashtra appear to be changing with the Raj Thackeray-led Mahassrashtra Navnirman Sena moving closer to the Congress, the Shiv Sena getting isolated and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP making a retreat to win a second seat in the recently held biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha.
For the AICC, the MNS might be its political rival. But this is not the perception of either the Congress or its ally NCP in Maharashtra. This is because the ruling partners sought votes of 13 MLAs belonged to the Raj Thackeray-led party in the Masharashtra Legislative Council elections. The Congress-backed Independent candidate Vijay Sawant got elected on the MNS votes.
Now, the issue is whether Maharashtra Congress leaders had acted at the instance of the Central leaders or strike a deal with the MNS on thier own.
The NCP strategists — Chhagan Bhujbal, R.R. Patil and Madhukar Pichad — were not keen on a joint strategy with the Congress in the Council and the Rajya Sabha elections. In fact, reports from Mumbai had suggested that they were overconfident of winning three Council and two Rajya Sabha seats with t he help of “others”.
At that point, the Congress high command had decided to field MPCC spokesperson Kanhaiyalal Gidwani as an Independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections and thus virtually dared the Sharad Pawar-led party to get numbers for the election of its second candidate Ishwarlal Jain.
This strategy had worked well and Mr Bhujbal, Mr Patil and Mr Pichad had to request the AICC observers — Mohan Prakash and V. Narayansamy — in writing to ask Gidwani to take back his nominations. The observers and chief minister Ashok Chavan had discussed this “request letter” with the AICC managers handling the Maharashta affairs.
The NCP made the retreat in this game after realising that depending on Independent MLAs and those from other parties, could be risky.
An official of the Election Commission of India, in a letter to Mr Gidwani clarified that the authorised agent of a political party appointed under Rule 39AA of the Conduct of the Election Rules, 1961 is allowed to verify “only the votes cast by electors who are members of his political party and not of any other elector either belonging to some other party or an Independent member of the Legislative Assembly.”
Mr Gidwani on Wednesday told reporters that he had acted keeping in mind the Congress’ interests. He had filed his nominations for the Legislative Council and the Rajya Sabha elections and withdrew as per t he strategy. Defence minister and AICC in charge for Maharashtra affairs A.K. Antony appreciated his work and thanked him specially, he said.