With his election to the Maharashtra Legislative Council having become a mere formality, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday filed nominations for the State Council poll scheduled for May 21.
Uddhav was accompanied by his wife Rashmi Thackeray, State Cabinet Minister-son Aaditya Thackeray and Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut when he went to file his papers for the State Legislative Council polls.
Monday was the last day for filing nominations. The nominations will be scrutinised on Tuesday, while the last date for withdrawal of papers is May 14.
The biennial elections to nine State Legislative Council seats have been necessitated by the retirement on April 24 of nine members — comprising four from the NCP, three from the BJP and one each from the Shiv Sena and Congress.
Uddhav, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister on November 28 last year, is not a member of either of the Houses of the State Legislature. As provided under the Constitution, Uddhav will have to get elected to either of the Houses on or before May 27, the six-month deadline for his becoming a member of either of the Houses. Along with Uddhav, four candidates from the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) also filed their papers on the last day for filing their nominations.
The others who filed their nominations on Monday were: Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe, who is the current deputy chairperson of Maharashtra legislative Council, NCP’s Shashikant Shinde, Amol Mitkari, Kiran Jagannath Pwaskar and Shivajirao Yeshwant Garje and and Congress' Rajesh Rathod.
In addition to four BJP candidates who had filed nominations on May 8, two more candidates from the same party – Sandeep Lele and Ramesh Karad filed their nominations on Monday.
The four BJP candidates who had filed their papers earlier were: Praveen Dhatke, Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patiol, Dr Ajit Gopchade and Gopichand Paralkar.
In addition, an independent candidate Shahbaz Allauddin Rathod filed his papers.
There are in all 14 candidates in the fray. Of them, four are dummy candidates – two each from the NCP and BJP – who will withdraw from the contest, before the deadline for the withdrawals. The candidature of Independent candidate will in all likelihood be rejected.
As a result there will be only nine candidates for as many seats in the State Council for which the biennial elections are slated for May 21. Hence, the election of Uddhav and eight other candidates in the fray has become a foregone conclusion now.
However, the speculation that was making rounds in the state political circles on Monday was that the Congress’ candidate Rajesh Rathod had filed only one set of nomination papers and that too his papers might not stand the test of scrutiny scheduled for Tuesday.
In such an event, the State Council poll schedule may stretch till May 14, the last date of withdrawal of nominations. The one seat gainer in the end will either be the NCP or the BJP.