Mahayuti moves to hotel amid fears of cross-voting in assembly elections

In Maharashtra, the BJP and its ruling coalition have revived resort politics after a two-year hiatus. Mahayuthi The coalition partners, fearing cross-voting in the state assembly elections scheduled for Friday, shifted their state legislators to three hotels in Mumbai on Thursday.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) is part of the opposition along with the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP). Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) also took 16 councillors to hotel ITC Grand Central in Lower Parel.

The 103 state BJP legislators were taken to the Taj President Caffe Parade, while 40 legislators from Chief Minister Shinde’s Shiv Sena were shifted to the sea-facing Taj Lands End in Bandra.

Forty legislators belonging to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s NCP checked in at The Lalit in Andheri.

The move comes as 12 candidates are vying for 11 seats in the upper house of the Indian parliament, with the Shiv Sena (UBT) fielding Milind Narvekar, a close aide of party leader Uddhav Thackeray, as the opposition alliance’s third candidate.

The MVA’s three partners have a combined total of 65 MLAs, enough to win two seats but at least four votes short to ensure the election of all three candidates.

But with the backing of the Samajwadi Party (2), the Communist Party of India – Marxist (1) and the Indian Peasant and Workers’ Party (1), the MVA hopes to secure the 69 votes needed to win all three seats, as each candidate needs at least 23 votes to win.

“Fear of defection”

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former minister Bhaskar Jadhav told reporters on Thursday that one of the BJP candidates is likely to lose. Mahayuthi With the ruling coalition’s popularity dwindling in the Lok Sabha elections, lawmakers wanting to join the opposition camp may have been asked to prove their loyalty by voting for the MVA coalition.

Last week, Thackeray had also expressed confidence that all MVA candidates would win the elections.

Before MVA surprised everyone by putting up a third candidate, Mahayuthi The coalition has the support of more than 200 lawmakers, including independents, in parliament and was expected to win nine seats. Parliament currently has 274 seats, with 14 vacant for various reasons.

The BJP has fielded Pradnya Satav, while Sharad Pawar’s SP has backed incumbent MLC Jayant Patil of the Indian Peasant and Workers’ Party.

of Mahayuthi Candidates contesting the election include Pankaja Munde, Amit Goelke, Sadabhav Kot, Yogesh Tillekar and Parinay Phuke of the BJP, while Shinde’s Shiv Sena has fielded former Congress MPs Bhawana Gawli and Krupal Tumane.

The NCP has fielded Shivajirao Garje and Rajesh Vitekar.