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Home » Maharashtra » Battling ‘outsider’ tag, Congress’s RS nominee Pratapgarhi says he is part of Maharashtra

Battling ‘outsider’ tag, Congress’s RS nominee Pratapgarhi says he is part of Maharashtra

In the 288-member House, which forms the electoral college for the RS polls, the ruling Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP (52), and Congress (44).

By Newsd
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Battling 'outsider' tag, Congress's RS nominee Pratapgarhi says he is part of Maharashtra

Battling the ”outsider” tag, Congress’ Rajya Sabha candidate from Maharashtra, Imran Pratapgarhi, on Sunday said he considers himself a part of Maharashtra.

Speaking at the ‘Nav Sankalp’ conclave of Mumbai Congress in Panvel near Mumbai, Pratapgarhi also said that he had campaigned for Congress in Maharashtra in the past and would tour the state again to strengthen the party and campaign in the upcoming civic polls.

The election for six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held on June 10 for which seven candidates are in the fray. AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra, HK Patil, said the Congress is confident that Pratapgarhi will register a comfortable victory. ”We are not under pressure and we oppose horse-trading,” he said on Sunday.

An Urdu poet, Pratapgarhi hails from Uttar Pradesh. He heads the minority cell of Congress. After his nomination was announced, the BJP alleged that Congress ”imposed” an ”outsider” to contest RS polls from Maharashtra. The move to field Pratapgarhi had also caused heartburn in some leaders of Congress, with party functionary Ashish Deshmukh resigning from the post of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary last week.

Senior Congress leader and former CM Prithviraj Chavan, too, had expressed his displeasure over the decision to field Pratapgarhi from Maharashtra.

For the total six seats up for grabs, the opposition BJP has fielded three candidates, Congress and NCP one each, and Shiv Sena two.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has the votes to win two seats on its own. The Congress, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party, all constituents of the MVA, can win one seat each on their own and will together have surplus votes to win another seat.

The Shiv Sena is banking on these surplus votes to win its second seat.

The effective election quota per candidate is 42.

In the 288-member House, which forms the electoral college for the RS polls, the ruling Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP (52), and Congress (44).

While two NCP MLAs- Anil Deshmukh and minister Nawab Malik- are currently in jail, one seat is lying vacant.

Apart from the four main parties, the Assembly has 25 MLAs from smaller parties and Independents.

The BJP, which has 106 members in the House, has nominated Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik. The contest for the sixth seat lies between Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar and BJP’s Mahadik.

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