Nagpur: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC Ram Shinde on Wednesday filed a nomination for election to the post of Chairperson of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The election will be held on Thursday and if Shinde gets elected, the top presiding officer’s posts in both Houses of the State Legislature will be with the BJP.
Last week, BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the 15th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. The Council Chairperson’s post has been lying vacant since July 7, 2022, after NCP leader Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar’s term ended.
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During the filing of his nomination, Shinde was accompanied by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CM and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, BJP State head Chandrashekar Bawankule and party leader Chandrakant Patil. Shinde became a member of the State Legislative Council on July 8, 2022.
He served as a minister in the previous Devendra Fadnavis government (from 2014-19). Shinde lost to NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar from Karjat Jamkhed Assembly seat in the November 20 state polls by a narrow margin. Pawar also defeated him in the 2019 state polls.
Among 78 members in the Upper House of the state legislature, the BJP has 19 members, Congress 7, Shiv Sena (UBT) 7, Shiv Sena 6, NCP (SP) and NCP 5 each, and there are 3 Independent members. Governor C P Radhakrishnan, acting on the recommendation of the state cabinet, in October approved the names of seven MLCs out of the 12 vacant posts under the gubernatorial quota.
Shinde is from the Dhangar community and hails from Ahilyanagar formerly Ahmednagar district. In his post on X, Shinde thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar and state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule for his nomination.
Shiv Sena was also quite keen to get the State Council Chairperson’s post. However, the BJP declined to leave the post to Shiv Sena.
