Mumbai: The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday announced one candidate each for the March 27 by-polls to the five seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, a news agency reported.
The development comes after their ally in the Mahayuti Government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), declared candidates for three seats on Sunday.
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Monday 17 March 2025
While the Shiv Sena has nominated Chandrakant Raghuvanshi, a prominent party worker from Nandurbar district, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s NCP has fielded Sanjay Khodke, whose wife had won the 2024 State Assembly election.
On Sunday, the BJP had announced the candidature of Sandeep Joshi, the former Mayor of Nagpur and a close aide of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, along with state BJP General Secretary Sanjay Kenekar and former Member of Legislative Assembly Dadarao Keche.
The by-elections for these five seats are likely to be uncontested, the news agency reported. The seats became vacant in the Legislative Council after the sitting members won the Assembly elections last year.
Shiv Sena’s Amasha Padavi, NCP’s Rajesh Witekar, and BJP’s Pravin Datke, Gopichand Padalkar, and Ramesh Karad were the outgoing members who won the Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024.
Monday is the last day to file nominations for the March 27 by-elections. The nominations will be scrutinised on Tuesday, and candidates can withdraw from the fray by March 20. The election will be uncontested if no more than five candidates file nominations.
The State Legislative Council has 78 members. Unlike the Assembly, the Council is not dissolved every five years, and members serve a six-year term. Of the 78 members, 30 are elected by the Legislative Assembly, 22 by local governing bodies, and seven each by teachers and graduates.
Additionally, the Maharashtra Governor nominates 12 members from the fields of literature, arts, cooperatives, and social service.
After the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Council had 52 members. The Mahayuti alliance comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP has 32 members, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has 17.
The BJP has 19 MLCs, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has six, and NCP has seven. In the MVA camp, Congress has seven members, NCP (SP) has three, and Shiv Sena (UBT) has seven. There are also three independent members.
The opposition parties have not fielded any candidates till now. The MVA lacks sufficient numbers in the State Assembly to secure a seat, and hence, they have refrained from contesting the election.
