In a massive development, Uddhav Thackeray, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, along with eight others were declared elected unopposed to the state legislative council on Thursday, May 14, 2020.
Shiv Sena's Neelam Gorhe, NCP's Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari, Congress' Rajesh Rathod, and BJP's Ramesh Karad, Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Praveen Datke and Gopichand Padalkar are the other newly elected members. Thackeray's election to the Maharashtra Legislative Council denotes that he shall able to complete his full term as the Chief Minister of the state. Till now, the Shiv Sena chief was not a member of either the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council despite being sworn in as the CM of Maharashtra on November 28, 2019.
A non-legislator stops being a minister if he is not elected to either House of the legislature within a period of 6 months, as per the constitution. Uddhav Thackeray was set to be fielded as a candidate to one of the 9 MLC seats falling vacant on April 24. However, the Election Commission of India indefinitely postponed the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council polls in the current period owing to the coronavirus crisis which has plagued the country. Thus, the only option for Thackeray was to enter the Legislative Council as a nominated member.
The CM had earlier in the context of coronavirus stated that precaution must be taken to ensure that the virus does not spread in areas where industrial activities have resumed due to its contagious nature. Referring to the resumption of the train services with ticketed passengers, and service on its way to Mumbai from Delhi currently, Thackeray stated that the railways have been asked to provide details of people arriving in the country's financial capital Mumbai. Maharashtra currently has 25,912 cases of coronavirus in the country with Mumbai having 15,747 cases itself.
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