MVA ministers demanding commission in constituency development fund, alleges MLA

Ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, Shiv Sena-supported independent MLA Ashish Jaiswal on Monday alleged some ministers in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government demanded a “commission” in the constituency development fund.

Speaking to reporters, the Ramtek MLA said he will complain to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray against such ministers.

Jaiswal is currently the chief observer for MLAs who have complaints regarding the distribution of funds.

He, however, said this discontent among certain MLAs over the distribution of constituency funds would not impact the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections as he hopes that the chief minister will address the grievances.

According to sources, the chief minister is expected to meet with Independent MLAs in Mumbai on Monday.

“The discontent over the distribution of funds won’t go away until addressed,” Jaiswal told a Marathi news channel.

“We will not tolerate any imbalance in the distribution of funds and also not allow that injustice is done to our constituencies. Many ministers ask for monetary gains from the works carried out in our constituencies through the development fund. I will give the names of those ministers to the chief minister,” he said.

He also said that if the problems of MLAs are not addressed then the government will have to face the consequences.

For the total six RS seats up for grabs in Maharashtra, the opposition BJP has fielded three candidates, Congress and NCP one each, and Shiv Sena two.

Given its strength in the Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party has enough votes to win two seats on its own. The Congress, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party, all constituents of the MVA, can win one seat each on their own and will together have surplus votes to win another seat.

The Shiv Sena is banking on these surplus votes to win its second seat.

The effective election quota per candidate is 42 as of now.

In the 288-member House, which forms the electoral college for the RS polls, the ruling Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP (52), and Congress (44).

While two NCP MLAs- Anil Deshmukh and minister Nawab Malik- are currently in jail, one seat is lying vacant.

Apart from the four main parties, the Assembly has 25 MLAs from smaller parties and Independents.

The BJP, which has 106 members in the House, has nominated Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik.

The contest for the sixth seat lies between Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar and BJP’s Mahadik.