By PTI
MUMBAI: On the eve of elections to six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday held a meeting here with the MLAs of his party, where he advised them to ensure that their votes do not turn invalid due to some mistake.
The former chief minister was speaking to the BJP MLAs at a hotel. “You have been instructed on how to exercise the preferential voting for the Rajya Sabha. You will have to ensure that your vote will not become invalid due to some mistake,” the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Assembly said.
“We have told you how to vote and you should do it accordingly,” he added.
Union Railway Minister and election in-charge for the BJP Ashwini Vaishnav was also present at this meeting.
Fadnavis, who tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday, days after being found infected, joined the meeting and addressed the MLAs.
After more than two decades, Maharashtra will witness a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls as there are seven candidates in the fray for six seats.
Polling will be held at the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex, here between 9 am and 4 pm.
Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde, Dhananjay Mahadik (BJP), Praful Patel (NCP), Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar (Shiv Sena) and Imran Pratapgarhi (Congress) are in the fray for the six seats of the Upper House of Parliament.
The contest is for the sixth seat – between BJP’s Mahadik and Sena’s Pawar. Every vote has become crucial after BJP decided to field its third candidate in the election.
The BJP has 106 MLAs in the lower house of the Maharashtra legislature while it claimed to have support of some independent and small parties as well.
