On the one hand, there is coronavirus crisis in the state and on the other hand, discussions are underway with the Legislative Council elections. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released a list of four candidates for biennial elections for Maharashtra Legislative Council scheduled to be held on May 21. The four candidates are Pravin Datke (Nagpur city BJP chief), Gopichand Padalkar, Ajit Gopchade, and Ranjit Singh Mohite Patil.
Rajesh Rathod has been named as the Congress candidate for the biennial election to the Legislative Council of Maharashtra. Shiv Sena and NCP have named 2 candidates each from the party.
Elections to the nine Council seats which fell vacant on April 24 were withheld due to coronavirus outbreak. However, the poll panel had last week granted permission for holding elections to the Legislative Council in Maharashtra and stated that necessary guidelines will need to be ensured for safety against COVID-19 during the elections.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray filed his nomination for elections to the State Legislative Council on Monday. Apart from that, Shiv Sena's Dr Neelam Gorhe's also filed nomination for elections. NCP Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party chief Jayant Patil on Sunday announced the names of Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari as its candidates for the MLC elections in the state
Besides, BJP has fielded two candidates, Ramesh Karad and Sandeep Lele while NCP has fielded Kiran Pawaskar as a dummy candidate and a total of 12 nominations have been filed. After scrutiny, Ramesh Karad, Sandeep Lele and Kiran Pawaskar will withdraw their nomination papers.