BJP’s Ram Shinde set to become legislative council chairperson

BJP's Ram Shinde filed nomination for state legislative council chairperson; he's the sole candidate, ensuring his win. Election set for Thursday.

NAGPUR: Bharatiya Janata Party member of the upper house, Ram Shinde, the consensus candidate for the post of the chairperson of the state legislative council, filed his nomination on Wednesday. The election is scheduled for Thursday, when the declaration of Shinde’s win will be formally made as he is the only candidate in the fray.

BJP’s Ram Shinde set to become legislative council chairperson

Shinde, 55, a Dhangar leader and a former Maharashtra minister, who unsuccessfully fought Assembly election from Karjat-Jamkhed against Rohit Pawar of NCP (SP), was picked for the post by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself.

Fadnavis, along with state BJP state chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, accompanied Shinde when he went to file his nomination papers before the legislature secretary. The post is lying vacant for the last two years after the term of the then incumbent, Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, ended on July 7, 2022.

Governor CP Radhakrishnan had issued a notification to fill the post by December 19 and, subsequently, the election process began. Deputy chairperson Neelam Gorhe of Shiv Sena, who has been the acting chairperson of the upper house for the last two years, announced the programme for the election on Tuesday.

Sources said Gorhe also aspired for the chairman’s post, but Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray objected to her candidature, when he met Fadnavis on Tuesday. Senior BJP member Pravin Darekar was also a frontrunner for the post, along with Shinde. But, the sources claimed, the chief minister decided to go with Shinde as he is from the Dhangar community, to balance the caste equation in his government.