MLC polls: Voting for 6 seats in 5 local authorities’ constituencies on Dec 10

Two seats from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations and one each from Kolhapur, Dhule-Nandurbar, Akola-Buldhana-Washim local authorities’ constituencies will be elected to the council

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the biennial elections for six seats from five local authorities’ constituencies to be held on December 10. The Shiv Sena, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have two members each in the upper house, who are retiring on January 1, 2022, thereby necessitating the polls.

The Shiv Sena is likely to drop Ramdas Kadam as its candidate for the MLC polls from Mumbai local body in the backdrop of the recent controversy over alleged ‘anti-party activities’. (HT FILE)

Two seats from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations and one each from Kolhapur, Dhule-Nandurbar, Akola-Buldhana-Washim local authorities’ constituencies will be elected to the legislative council. Currently, Ramdas Kadam (Shiv Sena) and Bhai Jagtap (Congress) represent Mumbai, while Satej Patil (Congress) has been elected from Kolhapur, Amrish Patel (BJP) from Dhule-Nandurbar, Gopikishan Bajoria (Shiv Sena) from Akola-Buldhana-Washim and Girish Vyas (BJP) has been elected from Nagpur.

Twenty two members are elected to the 78-member upper house, which has the majority of the three ruling parties – Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress. As the representatives are to be elected from the local bodies, the parties holding them currently are likely to retain it based on the strength they have in the respective constituencies.

The Sena is, however, likely to drop Kadam as its candidate from Mumbai local body in the backdrop of the recent controversy over ‘anti-party activities’. The Congress is expected to repeat both its sitting law makers, though winning a seat from Mumbai could be a challenge before it owing to the dwindled number of party corporators. BJP enjoys the majority in Nagpur and Dhule-Nandurbar local bodies, that could help it to retain both its seats.

ECI has deferred the elections to two seats to be elected from Solapur and Ahmednagar local bodies after the percentage of the electors dropped down 75% owing to various reasons. The members elected from these bodies are retiring on January 1.

The last day of filing the nomination for the polls is November 23, while the last day of withdrawal of the nomination is November 26. The counting will be held on December 14.

Meanwhile, 12 seats to be appointed from the Governor’s quota to the upper house remain to be vacant as the Bhagat Singh Koshyari has not yet cleared the list of names moved by the state government.