Mumbai, July 2 Shiv Sena UBT’s move to field party president Uddhav Thackeray’s close confidant Milin Narvekar the contest seems inevitable in the biennial elections to the 11 seats for the Maharashtra Legislative Council (LC).
With Narvekar’s nomination, there are now 12 candidates in the fray. Tuesday was the last date for filing nominations.
All candidates including five BJP nominees, two each belonging to Shiv Sena and NCP, One each from Congress, Shiv Sena UBT and Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) filed their nominations.
Based on the present strength of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly of 274, the quota is 23 votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated former minister Pankaja Munde, Amit Gorkhe, Sadabhau Khot, Yogesh Tilekar and former minister Parinay Phuke.
The Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has fielded former MPs Krupal Tumane and Bhawana Gawli while Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has nominated Rajesh Vitekar and Shivajirao Garje.
The Congress has renominated Pradyna Satav and the NCP (SP) is supporting sitting MLC and PWP legislator Jayant Patil. Narvekar filed as Shiv Sena UBT.
The last date for withdrawal of nominations is July 5 and the election will take place on July 12.
With 103 legislators, the BJP looks confident to win five seats. Shiv Sena with its 37 legislators and support from 10 independents is sure of victory of two candidates. NCP with its 39 legislators also is confident to win two seats.
The Congress is confident of a victory of its lone nominee with its 37 legislators.
PWP’s Jayant Patil and Shiv Sena UBT nominee Milind Narvekar are banking on excess votes from Congress and also from the support from 16 legislators of Shiv Sena UBT and 13 legislators of NCP SP. They are also expecting support from a few independent legislators.
The biennial elections are necessitated because 11 MLCs are retiring. These legislators are Manisha Kayande (Shiv Sena), Anil Parab (Shiv Sena-UBT), Vijay Girkar, Nilay Naik, Ramesh Patil, Ramrao Patil (BJP), Abdullah Durrani (NCP), Wajahat Mirza and Pragya Satav (Congress), Mahadev Jankar (RSP) and Jayant Patil (PWP).
--IANS
sj/dan
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor