There is no need to draw any big conclusions on the basis of the victory of the third BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections of Maharashtra as there is no threat to the Uddhav Thackeray government of the state. The government still has the support of legislators much more than the figure required for a majority. The main opposition BJP may have been successful in getting the cross voting done in the Rajya Sabha elections, but even the MLAs who have done cross voting will not support the BJP in the task of toppling the government. They know that switching sides will not lead to the fall of the government and if instability occurs, leading to mid-term elections, it will be a problem for them.
Keep in mind that in the Rajya Sabha elections, all the three candidates of BJP got 123 votes of first preference. He has the number 113 with his allies. That means he added 10 MLAs. Out of this, except one MNS MLA, the rest of the MLAs are with him till the Rajya Sabha elections. On the other hand, despite losing, four candidates of the Mahavikas Aghadi government got 160 first preference votes, while the majority mark is 145. This means that the government has 15 MLAs more than the majority. Even if the smaller parties are excluded, the Mahavikas Aghadi has a strength of 153 MLAs from all the three major parties – Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress. This figure is also more than the majority.
