Mumbai, Jul 10 (IANS): The MahaYuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi are not taking any chances, especially due to the chances of cross-voting during the biennial council elections to 11 seats slated for July 12.

There are 12 candidates in the fray and the MahaYuti and MVA have kept their legislators in various city five-star hotels.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar–led NCP on Wednesday held a meeting with their respective MLAs.

On the other hand, BJP MLAs met with party in-charge Bhupendra Yadav at Hotel Trident while the Shiv Sena – UBT MLAs gathered at Hotel ITC Grand Central.

The Congress has kept the meeting of MLAs on July 11 at Hotel Intercontinental.

The MLAs from Ajit Pawar-led NCP will be camped at Hotel Lalit near the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Shinde Sena MLAs will be kept at Taj Land’s End in Bandra while the Uddhav Thackeray-led MLAs will be at Hotel ITC Grand Central.

The BJP too has decided to keep its MLAs together at Taj President in south Mumbai.

However, Congress and NCP SP have not made hotel stay arrangements for their legislators.

MahaYuti and MVA have become more cautious considering the past experience.

During the biennial council elections held in June 2022, Congress nominee Chandrakant Handore lost due to cross-voting when BJP nominee Prasad Lad won. These developments led to the collapse of the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government following the rebellion staged by Eknath Shinde who walked out of the party with 39 legislators along with 10 independents.

The biennial council election is important for MahaYuti especially when it won 17 seats against 31 by MVA in the general elections.

Of the 9 candidates, BJP has fielded 9 and Shiv Sena NCP two nominees each.

On the other hand, Congress and Shiv Sena UBT have fielded one each while the Peasants and Workers Party Jayant Patil has entered the fray with the backing of NCP SP.

The MVA, considering its victory in the general elections, hopes to win three seats with backing from MLAs who are planning to switch back to either Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena or Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

However, the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP face a major challenge to keep their respective legislators together to avoid the defeat of any candidate.

The BJP has nominated party national secretary Pankaja Munde, Parinay Phuke, Yogesh Tilekar, Amit Gorkhe and Sadabhau Khot. NCP has given tickets to Rajesh Vitekar and Shivajirao Garje while Shiv Sena has nominated former MPs Bhawna Gavli and Krupal Tumane. Congress has renominated Pradnya Satav.

Shiv Sena (UBT) has given the ticket to party chief Uddhav Thackeray's close aide Milind Narvekar. Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) MLC Jayant Patil has also filed his nomination from the opposition.

The election of these 11 MLCs will be held through a secret ballot from the MLAs. With the strength of the assembly reduced to 274 from 288 - for reasons such as MLAs getting elected to Lok Sabha, death and suspension - the ruling coalition will be on its toes to keep its MLAs together. The winning candidate would require 23 votes of first preference to get elected.