Maharashtra legislative council polls: MVA in tight spot as BJP fields 5 candidates
India Today
Maharashtra legislative council election will be held for 10 seats on June 20. The BJP has fielded five candidates for the upcoming polls.
There seems to be no respite to Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra as BJP has fielded five candidates for upcoming legislative council elections slated for June 20. As per the numbers, the BJP can comfortably manage to win four seats. However, the fifth candidate in the fray has made elections inevitable, putting the MVA in a spot.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced the names of Pravin Darekar, Shrikant Bharatiya, Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre and Prasad Lad for the MLC seats.
Meanwhile, Sachin Ahir and Amashya Padvi have filed nomination from Shiv Sena. Congress has declared names of Chandrakant Handore and Bhai Jagtap. Whereas, NCP is yet to announce their candidate, but senior leader and legislative council chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar and Eknath Khadse, who joined the NCP from the BJP, are the frontrunners to get nominated for the upper house.
MLC polls in Maharashtra will be held for 10 seats out of which Shiv Sena with 55 votes can claim two seats, NCP with 52 can get two, while Congress with 44 votes can comfortably win one and must contest for the second seat against BJP's candidate. Last date for filing nomination is June 9.
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Maharashtra assembly constitutes of 288 members in the house. In MLC polls, each member will need minimum 27 votes of quota to win. In this scenario, BJP has 106 MLAs with the support of 7 Independents, while MVA claims to have majority of 170 MLAs along with the support of Independent and smaller parties.
After the demise of Ramesh Latke, Shiv Sena has lost one MLA. NCP's Minister Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are presently in jail. While MNS, AIMIM and CPI(M) have not supported anyone. This brings the tally to 282 members in the assembly. Members of legislative assembly constitute the electoral college for these polls.
