Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray to take oath as MLC today

This is the first time a Sena chief will become a member of the state legislature and the second from the Thackeray clan after his son Aaditya Thackeray.

Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will take his oath as a member of legislative council on Monday afternoon. This is the first time a Sena chief will become a member of the state legislature and the second from the Thackeray clan after his son Aaditya Thackeray.

Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will take his oath as a member of legislative council today (ANI)

Thackeray was one of the nine candidates belonging to the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, an alliance comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party who were declared elected unopposed to the council last week.

The other eight new members of the council are Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe, NCP’s Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari, Congress’s Rajesh Rathod and BJP’s Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke and Ramesh Karad.

Fourteen candidates were in the fray for the elections to the council, but subsequently four candidates--two each from the BJP and NCP-- withdrew their nominations and an independent candidate’s nomination was rejected in scrutiny.

The election of Uddhav Thackeray was crucial for him to continue as the chief minister as he had to fulfil the constitutional requirement of becoming a member of either of the houses before May 27--six months from the day he took the oath as chief minister.