Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Sanjay Upadhyay on Monday withdrew his nomination for the Rajya Sabha by-election from Maharashtra, clearing the way for Congress candidate Rajani Patil to be elected unopposed as a Rajya Sabha member. Is. State BJP President Chandrakant Patil discussed with the party members and took a collective decision on the matter in the meeting of the party’s core committee.
Sanjay Upadhyay told reporters that Congress leaders Nana Patole and Balasaheb Thorat had met Devendra Fadnavis and requested that this election should be held unopposed as per the tradition of Maharashtra. Therefore, as per the decision of our core committee, I have withdrawn my nomination from the upcoming Rajya Sabha by-election. Rajni is the candidate from Congress, who also has the support of NCP and Shiv Sena.
The by-election is being held on this seat due to the death of Rajeev Satav, a Rajya Sabha MP from Congress. Congress leader Satav, hailing from Hingoli district of Maharashtra, passed away in May this year due to post-Covid complications. His term was till 2 April 2026.
Patil, 62, is currently in charge of party affairs of the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir. He was accompanied by senior leaders of Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena at the time of filing his nomination. These three parties are part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra.
At the same time, 48-year-old Sanjay Upadhyay is originally from Uttar Pradesh, but has been living in Mumbai for many years. The Bharatiya Janata Party had decided to field him against Patil. He is the general secretary of the Mumbai unit of BJP.
Voting for the Rajya Sabha seat will be held on October 4 and the counting of votes will take place on the same day. The last date for filing nominations for the bypolls was September 22. Scrutiny of nomination papers was done on 23rd September and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is 27th September.
The BJP has the maximum number of 106 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. This is followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 53, Congress 43, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi three, Samajwadi Party two, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), two Palghar Janshakti Party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, CPI(M) , Swabhimani Party, Krantikari Shetkari Party have one member each while 13 are independent MLAs. One seat is vacant due to the death of Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar.
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