12 candidates in fray for 11 seats in Maharashtra Legislative Council election

As many as 12 candidates have filed their nomination on July 2 for the 11 Legislative Council election in Maharashtra that will go to election on July 12.

The ruling Mahayuti alliance has fielded nine candidates and Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s three nominees are in the fray for the biennial election. With five candidates, the BJP has fielded the most number of candidates, followed by Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, which have two nominees each. Among the MVA partners, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have fielded one candidate each, while NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar or SP) is supporting Peasants and Workers’ Party of India candidate Jayant Patil. Mr. Patil is a current MLC.

Shiv Sena (UBT) has chosen Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide Milind Narvekar and Congress has renominated Pradnya Satav, wife of late MP Rajeev Satav.

A contest between Mr. Narvekar and Mr. Patil is expected to unfold on July 12. Results on these 11 seats will be announced on the polling day itself.

On the sidelines of the ongoing monsoon Assembly session, Mr. Thackeray on July 2 displayed confidence in all three MVA candidates winning the election next week. Had the coalition not been confident of winning three MLC seats, he said, they would not have fielded as many candidates.

The BJP has nominated former State Minister Pankaja Munde, Amit Gorkhe, Sadabhau Khot, Yogesh Tilekar and re-nominated Parinay Phuke. Whereas, representing Shiv Sena are former Members of Parliament (MPs) Bhawana Gawli and Krupal Tumane and from NCP are Shivajirao Garje and Rajesh Vitekar.

Of the 288 seats, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly’s existing strength is 274. These 274 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) form the electoral college for the July 12 election. Each MLC candidate will require 23 votes to confirm a berth in the Upper House.

In the Mahayuti alliance, the BJP has 103 MLAs, Shiv Sena has 40 and NCP has 40. The alliance is also part of the larger National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comprising Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) with 1 MLA, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi having 2, Prahar Janshakti Party with 1, among others, taking Mahayuti’s share to 203.

The Opposition has a support of 69 MLAs – Congress (37), Shiv Sena-UBT (16), NCP-SP (12), Samajwadi Party (2), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (1) and Peasants and Workers Party of India (1).

The non-MVA component, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has two elected representatives in the Lower House.

Six-year term of 11 MLCs is due to end on July 27, necessitating an election to fill those seats.

Earlier in the day, the result for the four MLC seats – Mumbai Teachers, Mumbai Graduates, Nashik Teachers and Konkan Graduates – were announced. The election happened on June 26. In the election, Shiv Sena (UBT) bagged two, while BJP and Shiv Sena won one each.