Sanjay Raut issues warning to BJP, says "We're in power here, don't forget"

|HT|

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Saturday issued a warning to the Bharatiya Janata Party - "We're in power here (in Maharashtra)... they shouldn't forget". Raut's comment comes as his party and the BJP prep for battle over the one (as yet) undecided Rajya Sabha seat from the state, amid allegations the BJP is 'spending crores on horse-trading', or buying votes. The Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - which make up the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) - have put up four candidates, including Raut, and the BJP three. Individually the Sena, the Congress and the NCP have enough votes to claim one seat each, while the BJP has enough for two. The fourth candidate - pitted against the BJP's third - will need MVA votes to win.

"We wanted to postpone dates of RS elections so no horse-trading is being done. BJP's intention is clear... they want to use money and central investigative agencies... We're in power here, they shouldn't forget this," Raut declared.

Raut also called on the Enforcement Directorate - which opposition leaders have repeatedly claimed is used by the BJP to target rivals in various states - to investigate alleged 'money laundering' in this regard. The Sena leader also said 'forcing elections' - a reference to failed settlement talks between the BJP and the MVA - was designed to create instability.

Voting will be held June 10. Results will be declared the same day.

41 candidates have already been elected unopposed. On Friday the two camps met at the residence of BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, former chief minister and current Leader of the Opposition, to see if the matter could be settled. The MVA delegation was led by the NCP's Chhagan Bhujbal.

The MVA offered to help the BJP in legislative council polls if it withdrew its third candidate. The BJP countered by asking the MVA to withdraw Sanjay Pawar's name on the promise of fielding one candidate less in the council polls. Elections to 10 council seats will be conducted on June 20.

The meeting ended in a stalemate. After this Bhujbal said : "... election to Rajya Sabha looks inevitable after two decades. The fight will be between Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar and BJP's third candidate (Dhanajay Mahadik)."

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil, also at the meeting, was of a similar opinion, saying 'elections are inevitable' and issuing a warning of his own.

"We know how to manage the Rajya Sabha polls in which the calculations depend on the preferential votes," he said.

The MVA has 169 MLAs - 55 from the Sena, 53 from the NCP, and 44 from Congress. It also has the support of eight independents and nine smaller parties. If it can maintain this it can win all four seats. Each candidate needs 42 votes to win.

The BJP has 106 MLAs in addition to five independents and three smaller parties' support, meaning it is 12 votes short of winning the sixth seat.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)