Election to legislative council on nine seats in Maharashtra to be held unopposed: Sanjay Raut

Amid the tussle between the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) over the delay in Uddhav Thackeray’s nomination as an MLC, the election commission announced polls to the legislative council in Maharashtra on nine vacancies. 

However, the dispute was not over as the Congress fielded two candidates for the MLC election scheduled to be held on May 21. Reacting to this, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut informed that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wants the state legislative council election to be held unopposed amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

Raut told reporters that the ongoing political drama has upset the Shiv Sena chief and he was not willing to contest the council poll. Uddhav Thackeray is not afraid to contest an election but the current situation of the coronavirus outbreak doesn’t demand political battles, he added. 

The Shiv Sena MP further informed that Uddhav Thackeray sent a message to Maharashtra Congress President Balasaheb Thorat to withdraw one of the two candidates his party has fielded for the May 21 MLC election. 

As this happened, Sanjay Raut took to Twitter and thanked senior Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan for withdrawing party's second candidate. Raut announced that the election to the legislative council in Maharashtra on nine seats will be held unopposed. 

"Keeping in mind the coronavirus crisis and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's candidature, Congress has decided to withdraw one of its two candidates for the MLC election," Raut tweeted in Hindi. 

Congress earlier announced the candidature of Rajesh Rathod and Rajkishor alias Papa Modi for the legislative council poll. However, Congress caved into Shiv Sena’s demand and withdrew one of its two candidates nominated to the legislative council polls which means that the MVA will be contesting on five seats and the council poll is set to be held unopposed. 

Therefore, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will be contesting on two seats while Congress will contest on only one seat. The BJP has fielded four candidates for the MLC election. 

The MVA government has the support of 169 legislators in the Maharashtra legislative assembly. Apart from its 154 MLAs - Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54, Congress 44 - the MVA has the support of 15 other legislators in the assembly. 

On the other hand, the opposition has the support of 115 MLAs including 105 legislators from the BJP and eight independents. According to EC, the last date to file the nomination is May 11 and the date for withdrawal is May 14. The results will be out on the same day of the polling.

Also Read - Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray Set To Enter Legislative Council Unopposed