NCP will back Sena fielded candidates for RS polls: Pawar

Pune: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said on Saturday that in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, his party would only back Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati or candidates nominated by the Shiv Sena for six seats in Maharashtra, PTI reported.

He was addressing the media after having talks with a representative from certain Brahmin community organisations in Pune. He told reporters, "Two years ago, we had demanded two seats (in the Rajya Sabha), and we got those. But, this time, we will get one seat. After supporting our candidate, we will have votes to support one candidate of the Shiv Sena. They may choose Sambhajiraje or any other candidate, we will support the candidate chosen by the Shiv Sena."

The terms of six Maharashtra MPs of Rajya Sabha- Piyush Goyal, Vinay Sahastrabuddhe and Vikas Mahatme (all three from the BJP), P Chidambaram (Congress), Praful Patel (NCP) and Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena)- are to end on July 4. When polls for these seats are scheduled on June 10, BJP might win two of them with the MLA strength it has, while the ruling Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP might win a seat each, PTI reports. The expected contest will be in the sixth seat, PTI adds.

An earlier President-nominated member of Rajya Sabha, Sambhajiraje is a member of the Kolhapur royal family and descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He had announced his decision to contest in Rajya Sabha elections as an independent candidate and had appealed to all the parties to support him.

Meanwhile, some senior leaders from Shiv Sena informed that the party would introduce a second candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, which might affect Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati's chances, PTI reports.