In a huge relief to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray was elected unopposed as state Legistative Council member here on Thursday.
Uddhav's election to the Council will provide stability to the 6-month-old Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress alliance government in the state.
Thackeray, 59, has now become the second member from the state's numero uno political family to enter the state legislature.
In October 2019, his son became the first one to win the Assembly elections from Worli segment. He is now the Environment and Tourism Minister.
Besides senior Thackeray, eight others elected on Thursday included Sena's Dr Neelam Gorhe, Congress' Rajesh Rathod, NCP's Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari.
From the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, those elected are Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Pravin Datke, Gopichand Padalkar and Ramesh Karad.
Thursday was the last date of withdrawal of nominations and since no additional candidate was in the fray, all nine candidates whose applications were found in order were declared elected unopposed.
Thackeray took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister on November 28, 2019, when he was not a member of either house of the state legislature and needed to get elected within six months.
The Shiv Sena had plans to nominate him for the April biennial elections to the Legislative Council but owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, all polls were postponed by the Election Commission of India.
Later, the MVA government resolved to propose his name for one of the two vacant seats from the Governor's quota to the Council.
However, as there were certain technicalities, Thackeray spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the crisis situation.
Thereafter, the Shiv Sena cited an emergency and urged Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to impress upon the ECI to conduct Council polls, to prevent a potential constitutional crisis in the state.
The poll schedule was announced thereafter and the MVA and opposition BJP ensured that it was concluded without a contest.
( With inputs from IANS )