With both the ruling tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soliciting the support of Independents and smaller parties in the high stakes Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday claimed no one from the ruling MVA had contacted them yet.
Mr. Owaisi, who was speaking in Nanded, further said that if the ruling alliance of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress did indeed wish to claim the AIMIM’s support, then the MVA ought to make its communication clear and in the open.
Despite holding a meeting with party functionaries, Mr. Owaisi and other AIMIM leaders did not come up with any decision to support either the MVA or the BJP.
“No one from the MVA has contacted us or our MLAs in Maharashtra. If they want our support and wish to defeat the BJP, they should talk directly with us,” he said.
The Shiv Sena has often accused the AIMIM of acting as the BJP’s “B-team”. Earlier, in March this year, the ruling Shiv Sena had categorically rejected the AIMIM’s offer to be part of the ruling MVA coalition in order to form a broad anti-BJP front in the State. The Sena had further alleged that the AIMIM’s offer was part of a BJP ploy to discredit the Sena’s Hindutva credentials.
Of the 57 Rajya Sabha seats across India going to polls on June 10, six are from Maharashtra. Going by the respective numerical strength of the major parties in the State, the BJP, which is numerically the single largest party (with 106 seats), is set to get two seats, with 42 votes deciding each seat, while the three MVA coalition parties — the Shiv Sena (56 seats), the NCP (53 seats) and the Congress party (44 seats seats) — are set to get one seat each.
However, the Shiv Sena has fielded two candidates while the Opposition BJP has propped up three candidates, paving the way for a fierce contest for the sixth Rajya Sabha seat. Of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the AIMIM has two MLAs. Given that the State will witness a straight fight for the RS polls after more than two decades, both the ruling coalition and the Opposition BJP are attempting to woo Independents as well as smaller parties.
