Maharashtra CM files nomination for legislative council elections

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray filed his nomination papers for the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) election on Monday. Besides Thackeray, four other candidates

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray filed his nomination papers for the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) election on Monday. Besides Thackeray, four other candidates of the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) too filed their nominations for the biennial election of the upper House of the state legislature.

HT Image

Thackeray becomes the first Shiv Sena chief to enter the legislature as he along with others are set to get elected unopposed. He is the second member from the Thackeray family to contest an election after his son and minister Aaditya, who contested assembly polls in October 2019. Thackeray was accompanied by wife Rashmi and sons Aaditya and Tejas while he filed his nomination papers.

As Congress decided to withdraw one of its candidates from the upcoming legislative Council polls on Sunday evening, the elections to the nine seats will be unopposed. Thackeray will be elected to the upper House of the state legislature without an election being held.

Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe also filed her nomination papers. Gorhe is the deputy chairperson of the legislative Council. Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) candidates Amol Mitkari, who is known to be close to Ajit Pawar, filed their nomination papers. Mitkari is the state general secretary of the party who played a vital role in last year’s assembly polls. NCP’s Shashikant Shinde also filed nomination. Congress party fielded Rajesh Rathod; he too filed his nomination papers later in the afternoon.

Besides the candidates announced by the four parties, two more candidates from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and NCP, and one Independent also filed nomination today. BJP’s Sandeep Lele and Ramesh Karad, and NCP’s Kiran Pawaskar and Shivajirao Garje along with Rathod Shahbaaz Allauddin, an Independent filed nomination on Monday. However, sources said that these are dummy candidates and would withdraw their nomination by May 14, which is the last day of withdrawal of candidature.

“The election will be unopposed. In the end, only nine candidates will remain in the fray. We did not want to engage in any politics, as it is not the time for politicking. The chief minister said that this was a time to tackle the situation and the Congress party responded to his appeal and fielded only one candidate,” said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.

Senior leaders from the Shiv Sena, Subhash Desai, Eknath Shinde Arvind Sawant, among others were also present with the CM at the Vidhan Bhawan. Deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, NCP’s Jayant Patil. Congress leaders Ashok Chavan, Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut were also there to lend support.

On April 30, the Governor shut the nomination door on Thackeray and requested the Election Commission to hold elections for nine seats to the state legislative council at the earliest to end the political uncertainty in the state. Thackeray, who took oath on November 28, has time till May 27 to get elected as a member of either the assembly or council.

The BJP has already fielded four candidates, who filed their nomination last week. The BJP has fielded Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datake, Ranjitsinh Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil and Dr Ajeet Gopchade.