On Friday (June 10), All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Imtiaz Jaleel informed that the Islamic party will support Maha Vikas Aghadi in the Rajya Sabha polls that are being held in the State of Maharashtra.
It must be mentioned that Shiv Sena is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), a grand alliance comprising the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Jaleel took to Twitter to inform that AIMIM’s 2 MLAs will support Congress candidate Imran Pratapgarhi to the Upper House of the Parliament.
“We extend our best wishes to him,” he wrote, adding that the Islamic party has placed several conditions before the incumbent Maharashtra government. This included reservations for Muslims, the development of Malegaon and Dhulia, an increase in income of the Maharashtra Waqf Board and the appointment of a Muslim in the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC).
Our 2 AIMIM Maharashtra MLAs have been asked to vote for @INCIndia candidate @ShayarImran for Rajya Sabha seat. We extend our best wishes to him! @asadowaisi
— Imtiaz Jaleel (@imtiaz_jaleel) June 9, 2022
“We laid certain conditions related to the development of our MLAs constituencies in Dhulia and Malegaon. Also demanded Govt appoint a minority member in MPSC and take steps to increase the income of the Maharashtra Wakf Board. Also demanded reservations for Muslims,” Imtiaz Jaleel had tweeted.
The AIMIM leader pointed out that the Islamic party’s difference with Shiv Sena will continue to exist, despite its support for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. He highlighted that defeating the BJP is the sole objective of AIMIM in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Imtiaz Jaleel wrote, “To defeat BJP, our party AIMIM has decided to vote for Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Our political/ideological differences however will continue with ShivSena which is a partner in MVA along with Congress and NCP.”
To defeat BJP, our party @aimim_national has decided to vote for Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Our political/ideological differences however will continue with @ShivSena which is a partner in MVA along with @INCIndia and @Maha_speaks_ncp.
— Imtiaz Jaleel (@imtiaz_jaleel) June 9, 2022
Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra
A total of 6 seats are up for grabs in Maharashtra. However, the number of candidates contesting the polls is 7. Reportedly, the BJP has fielded 3 candidates, namely, Dhananjay Mhadik, Piyush Goyal and Anil Bonde.
Similarly, Congress has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi while NCP’s Praful Patel is contesting for Rajya Sabha. Sanjay Rawat and Sanjay Pawar of Shiv Sena are also in the fray. The voting commenced on Friday (June 10) morning and will conclude at 4 pm.
Earlier on Thursday (June 9), political parties in the State were engaged in fine-tuning their strategies. The MLAs belonging to the Shiv Sena, Congress and the NCP were held up at different resorts in Mumbai and reached the State Assembly before the commencement of voting.
Meetings were convened by BJP leader Ashwini Vaishnaw, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray with their respective party members.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress general secretary Mallikarjun Kharge, and BJP leader and Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw went into a huddle with leaders of their respective parties in Mumbai to give final touches to their strategy.
The voting mechanism in Rajya Sabha
Elections to the Upper House of the Parliament are conducted through a system of indirect voting. Unlike the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by members of the State Legislative Assembly (aka MLAs) through proportional representation using the single transferable vote (STV) system.
Under the system, a vote of an MLA is counted only once and he cannot vote for each seat. By doing so, our Constitution makers ensured that representatives of parties, other than the ruling party, get fair representation in the Upper House of the Parliament.
“The MLAs are given a paper with the names of all candidates. They have to give their order of preference for each candidate, marking 1,2,3… against their names. If 10 or more members choose a candidate as their first choice, he/she gets elected. The political party that has a majority in the state Assembly normally gets to send the maximum number of MPs to the Rajya Sabha,” a report by Debayan Roy in News18 stated.
The formula used for the calculation of minimum votes to secure a Rajya Sabha seat is given as: [(Number of MLAs X 100) / (Vacancies + 1)] + 1.
For instance, Maharashtra has a total strength of 288 MLAs in its State Assembly. When multiplied by 100, we get a total of 28,800. Given that there were only 6 vacancies, the same formula can be rearranged as:
[(288 X 100) / (6 + 1)] + 1 = (28800/7)+ 1 = 4114+1 = 4115
By adhering to the BODMAS rule, we will add the 1 after obtaining the result of division aka 4114. Given that every MLA has 100 votes, each candidate who contests the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha election on Friday will need 4115 votes or the support of 42 MLAs to win.
