BHOPAL: The biennial election to three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh has become even more interesting as the ruling BJP is considering fielding its candidate for the third seat too.
The speculations have come up following a late Sunday night meeting of state BJP’s top brass at CM Dr Mohan Yadav’s residence.
The ruling party is likely to announce its candidate for the third seat on Monday morning, followed by the filing of nomination papers by the decided candidate. The third candidate from the BJP may be from a scheduled caste community or a scheduled tribe community.
Monday, the last date for filing nominations for the June 18 elections, could be politically a power-packed day in the wake of the late Sunday night developments in the MP capital.
As per BJP insiders, the party is confident of getting its third candidate also elected and has already done the necessary home work for winning the support of the Congress MLAs in the June 18 elections.
Out of the three seats going to polls on June 18, two were held by BJP and one by the Congress.
Currently, in the 230-member Vidhan Sabha, the Congress is assured of the support of its 61 MLAs, while the BJP has 164 MLAs and is also banking on the possible support from the lone Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) MLA Kamleshwar Dodiyar and Congress MLA from Bina (SC) seat Nirmala Sapre.
To win one seat, 58 first-preference votes are required. With 61 assured votes, the Congress has a comfort cushion of three first preference votes.
On the other hand, the BJP, with 164 MLAs, is set to get its two official candidates – national general secretary Tarun Chugh and state secretary Rajneesh Agrawal elected easily to the two seats. After that the BJP, will still have 48 surplus votes along with possible support from BAP MLA and Congress MLA Nirmala Sapre (who joined BJP during LS polls) taking its support base to 50. But for ensuring the victory of its third candidate, the BJP will need cross-voting by at least eight Congress MLAs.
According to informed political sources in Bhopal, following the latest development about BJP likely to field a candidate for the third seat, the Congress may shift its 60-plus MLAs to a southern state – Telangana or Karnataka.
Senior Congress leaders from the two southern states ruled by the grand old party are likely to fly to Bhopal on Monday to take care of the changing political developments in the BJP-ruled central Indian state, sources added.