Ahead of Rajya Sabha polls, CM Uddhav Thackeray says 'no matter how hard anyone tries' all 4 MVA candidates will win

Mumbai: Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls slated to be held on June 10, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray exuded confidence in all the four candidates of the Maha Vikas Aghadi of winning the upcoming Upper House elections. The ruling Shiv Sena has already shifted its MLAs to Trident Hotel in Malad on Tuesday, according to reports.

In the hotel, the three alliance partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP held a meeting here on Tuesday and discussed the strategy for the upcoming RS polls. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, NCP`s Sharad Pawar, and Congress` Mallikarjun Kharge among others were present at Trident.

"No matter how hard anyone tries, MVA`s all 4 candidates will go to Delhi as Rajya Sabha MPs. Maharashtra has a tradition of decency, and the same should be maintained by Opposition too," ANI quoted CM Thackeray as saying. 

Earlier in the day, Congress leader and former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan expressed confidence in the party candidates registering a win in the June 10 elections, adding "Congress candidate will certainly be elected. We have no threat, have formed our strategy."

Notably, the Congress party has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi for the polls while Praful Patel has been fielded from the NCP, while Shiv Sena`s Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar have been given a run in the polls.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole also exuded confidence that all four candidates nominated by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will be elected in the Rajya Sabha elections on June 10. He said that all MLAs of the ruling alliance are together and they are also taking independent leaders with them. 

"All our MLAs are together and we are taking independent leaders with us too. All four candidates from Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will be elected in the upcoming Rajya Sabha election on June 10," ANI quoted Patole as saying.

The Congress leader said that the alliance leaders will talk to Samajwadi Party and request them to vote for Maha Vikas Aghadi. The BJP has fielded three candidates in Maharashtra and there is a contest for the Rajya Sabha seats. There are also contests in Rajasthan, Karnataka and Haryana. Forty-one candidates have been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha during the biennial elections. 

A total of seven candidates -- three candidates of the BJP, two of the Shiv Sena and one each of NCP and Congress -- are in the fray for six seats, which necessitated election for Rajya Sabha after more than two decades in Maharashtra.

The contest for the sixth seat will be between the BJP's Dhananjay Mahadik and Sena's Sanjay Pawar. The BJP has asked its MLAs to come to Mumbai in the next two days.

In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly (which forms the electorate for the Rajya Sabha polls), smaller parties have 16 MLAs, while the number of Independents is 13. With one Assembly seat lying vacant and two NCP MLAs (Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik) in jail, the quota of votes per winning candidate is 41.

(With ANI/PTI Inputs)