Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and eight others to take oath as MLCs

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and eight others will take oath as members of legislative council (MLC) on Monday. The nine candidates contesting the MLC elections in the state were elected unopposed on May 14. 

Although the MLC elections on nine vacancies were scheduled to be held on May 21, the results were announced on the last day of withdrawal as there was no contest. This happened after five out of the 14 nominees for the legislative council elections in Maharashtra either withdrew their nomination or it was rejected over technical grounds. 

On May 12, two candidates each from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew their nominations while the papers of one Independent candidate was rejected during scrutiny. 

The Chief Electoral Officer informed that four candidates including BJP’s Sandeep Lele and Ajit Gopchade and NCP’s Kiran Pawaskar and Shivajirao Garje withdrew their nominations. The papers of Independent candidate Shehbaz Rathod were found invalid during scrutiny, the officer added. 

The ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) fielded five candidates while the opposition BJP announced four candidates for the MLC elections on nine seats. However, Congress - the alliance partner in the MVA government - had decided to contest on two seats but withdrew the candidature of Rajkishor or Papa Modi on the request of Shiv Sena to avoid a contest amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

Besides Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena Deputy Leader Neelam Gorhe was re-elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Moreover, NCP’s Shashikant Shinde, Amol Mitkari and Congress’ lone candidate Rajesh Rathod were also elected unopposed to the legislative council. 

Meanwhile, BJP’s four candidates including Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke, Ramesh Karad and Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil will also take oath as the members of the legislative council. 

This comes as a huge relief for Uddhav Thackeray who was constitutionally bound to get elected to the Maharashtra Legislature before May 28 - within six months of taking the office as the Chief Minister.  

Also Read - Maharashtra Government Paying For Migrant Travel Not Centre: Anil Deshmukh