Polling for the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections from Maharashtra is now certain, because neither the Maha Vikas Aghadi nor the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew any of their candidates on Friday, leaving seven contestants for six vacancies in the race. This throws open the field to  independent MLAs, a most sought after entity in such situations.

The single largest party, the BJP has three candidates, the Shiv Sena two, and the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party one each. A candidate needs a quota of 41.01 votes to win. The entire game depends on how independents and smaller parties vote. The BJP has a comfortable strength to win two seats and the Sena one, but they need additional votes for winning an extra seat.