Wasnik should run for the RS elections in Maharashtra: Chavan

Prithviraj Chavan, the party’s leader, expressed displeasure with Uttar Pradesh Congressman Imran Pratapgarhi’s nomination from Maharashtra for the Rajya Sabha elections next month, saying that his colleague Mukul Wasnik should have been filed from the state.

Pratapgarhi, a poet-politician from Uttar Pradesh, had filed his nomination papers as a Congress candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections on June 10 in Mumbai earlier in the day.

Chavan told a press conference in Nagpur that he had asked Wasnik to run for the Rajya Sabha elections from Maharashtra, his native state.

“Wasnik received a (Rajya Sabha) seat from Rajasthan, whereas Pratapgarhi, an Uttar Pradesh leader, received a seat from Maharashtra,” the former chief minister remarked.

He believes Wasnik should be fielded from Maharashtra rather than Rajasthan.

According to the Congress leader, Wasnik and Pratapgarhi can withdraw their nominations from Rajasthan and Maharashtra, respectively, and the former can file papers in his home state.

“I have urged a change from top authorities,” Chavan claimed.

The deadline for filing nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections, in which members of the 288-member state parliament will elect six candidates to the Upper House of Parliament, is May 31.

With three candidates, the Bharatiya Janata Party has enough votes to win two seats on its own.

The Congress, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party can each win one seat, and together they will have enough votes to win another.

The Shiv Sena, which has two candidates running, is counting on these extra votes to win its second seat.