In a significant development that paved way for Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to get elected as an MLC before the stipulated six month-deadline of May 27, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced it would hold the biennial elections on May 21 to fill nine MLCs seats.
Acting on the request made by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to schedule the elections “at the earliest”, the ECI announced the schedule between May 4 and May 26 to complete the process of elections to fill the nine vacant seats in the Upper House of the Maharashtra Legislature.
As per the schedule, the ECI will issue notification for the elections on May 4. The last date for filing nominations is May 11, while the papers will be scrutinised on May 12. The last date of withdrawal of nominations is May 14. The poll will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on May 21 and the votes will be counted an hour later. The ECI will complete the election process by May 26.
The biennial elections have been necessitated by the retirement on April 24 of Neelam Diwakar Gorhe (Shiv Sena), Hemant Prabhakar Takle, Anand Rajendra Thakur (both NCP) Smita Uday Wagh, Prithviraj Sayajirao Deshmukh (both BJP), Kiran Jagannath Pawaskar, Arunbhau Janardan Adasad (both NCP), Chandrakant Batesing Raghuvanshi (Congress) and Harisingh Narsu Rathod (BJP).
In the normal course, the Election Commission was to hold the elections to fill the posts of nine MLCs, who would be retiring on April 24 from Upper House, and Uddhav was to contest these elections. However, the EC has postponed these elections in view of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.
The ECI's decision to hold biennial elections to fill nine MLC seats in Maharashtra has come as huge relief to Uddhav considering that the State Cabinet made a recommendation to the Governor on April 9, requested him once again on April 27 to nominate the current Chief Minister as an MLC in one of the two vacant slots. A delegation of Ministers also met the Governor on April 28 to make a personal request in this regard. On April 29, Uddhav also spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek the latter's intervention.