MVA allies to put up united fight against BJP in Jan 31 MLC bypolls

Two seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) are up for bypolls on January 31, after the respective members were elected to the state Legislative Assembly

Two seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) are up for bypolls on January 31, after the respective members were elected to the state Legislative Assembly in the recent elections.

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The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), have jointly fielded candidates against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the polls.

The Sena has fielded Dushyant Chaturvedi, son of former Congress minister Satish Chaturvedi, for the Yavatmal seat. He will be pitted against Sumit Bajoria of the BJP. Chaturvedi, who joined the Sena in June 2019, runs educational institutes in the Vidarbha region.

The bypoll was necessitated after Sena MLC Tanaji Sawant was elected to the state Legislative Assembly. The post fell vacant from October 24, while his tenure was to expire on December 5, 2022.

NCP leader Dhananjay Munde’s win in the Assembly elections has left his council seat empty. Munde was the Leader of Opposition in the council. On the seat, NCP has fielded Satish Daund against Rajan Teli of the BJP. Daund filed his nomination in presence of senior NCP, Sena and Congress leaders on Tuesday.

Daund and his family helped Munde in the Assembly polls. In lieu, he was assured MLC position by the NCP leadership, said an NCP functionary requesting anonymity.

“He [Daund] is the son of former minister Panditrao Daund, who had defeated senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde in the state Assembly elections in 1985. Daund family was considered a political rival of the Munde family. However, Dhananjay Munde chose to join hands with them for the Assembly polls,” the functionary said.

Narvekar said that the Sena has the numbers and the elections were a “mere formality”.