Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is set to enter the Legislative Council unopposed
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is set to enter the Legislative Council unopposed after the Congress on Sunday said it will withdraw one of its two candidates for elections to nine seats on May 21.
"We have decided to field only one out of two nominees for the MLC elections, which means the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) will have five nominees for as many seats (out of the total nine)," state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat said.
The BJP has fielded four candidates.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had earlier on Sunday said Mr Thackeray had conveyed that the election should be "unopposed".
Mr Thackeray, who is not a member of either houses of the state legislature, is one of the nominees for the election, which became necessary after terms of the MLCs ended on April 24.
"Uddhav Thackeray personally feels that the election for the nine seats of the Legislative Council take place unopposed. He expects so because he wants to dedicate most of his time to the ongoing fight against coronavirus," Mr Raut told reporters earlier on Sunday.
As the Congress had earlier decided to field only one candidate for the May 21 election, there were nine candidates for as many seats. But on Saturday, Mr Thorat tweeted that Rajkishore alias Papa Modi would be the party's second candidate, besides Rajesh Rathod, a Jalna zilla parishad member whose name was announced from Delhi.
Now one of the two candidates has been withdrawn. The 288-member Maharashtra assembly forms an electoral college for the election, and a candidate needs 29 votes to win. The Congress has 44 MLAs. The last day of filing nomination is tomorrow. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on May 12 and the last date of withdrawal of papers is May 14.