Rajya Sabha polls updates: In a huge setback for the ruling Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra, a special court in Mumbai on Thursday denied the pleas filed by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik and former minister Anil Deshmukh seeking a day’s bail to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. The six RS seats from Maharashtra will go to polls on June 10, Friday.
Both Deshmukh and Malik, senior NCP leaders, are in jail in connection with separate money laundering cases being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Deshmukh was arrested by the ED in November 2021 in a money laundering case. Malik was arrested by the ED on February 23 this year in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.
After hearing extensive arguments by all the parties, the court on Thursday refused temporary bail to Malik and Deshmukh. The ED had opposed their pleas, saying that prisoners do not have voting rights under the Representation of the People Act.
The setback comes just a day ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, as every vote is crucial for the Shiv Sena-led MVA, of which the NCP is a constituent, to get the Sena's second candidate- Sanjay Pawar- elected.
The ruling Shiv Sena has fielded two candidates, its MVA allies NCP and Congress have nominated one candidate each, while the opposition BJP has put up three candidates. The contest lies between BJP's Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar.
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(agencies inputs)
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