Senior leader Sharad Pawar is keen to contest the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut claimed on Saturday, adding that a merger between the rival NCP factions remains unlikely.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Raut said he had personally discussed the matter with Pawar. “I had a discussion with Sharad Pawar saheb. I asked his opinion about this (whether he will contest the Rajya Sabha polls). He told me that he will contest the Rajya Sabha polls. He has told me,” Raut said.
Raut, a leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT), described Pawar as a senior-most lawmaker with nearly six decades of legislative experience. Pawar, 85, has maintained an uninterrupted presence in either the Maharashtra legislature or Parliament since 1967.
According to Raut, Pawar has conveyed his intention to the Congress leadership. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena, will take a collective decision on the candidature.
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Seven Rajya Sabha members, including Pawar, are set to retire in April. Given its current strength in the Maharashtra Assembly, the MVA is in a position to send only one candidate to the Upper House.
Raut also dismissed speculation about a possible reunion between Pawar’s faction and the rival Nationalist Congress Party.
Following the death of Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in Baramati on January 28, Sharad Pawar had claimed that his late nephew had wished to see both factions united. However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis publicly cast doubt on the assertion, saying any serious merger talks would have been known to him.
NCP leaders from both sides have since indicated that unification remains a remote possibility.
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