Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and eight other candidates in the fray for the May 21 polls to the legislative council are set to get elected to the Upper House unopposed.
Five out of the 14 nominations were either withdrawn or rejected over technical ground, leaving only nine candidates in the fray for the same number of seats, said an official from Chief Electoral Office of Maharashtra. The Maharashtra Legislative Council election is scheduled for nine seats for which 14 nominations were received. Out of these, Dr Ajit Gopchade and Sandeep Lele of the BJP withdrew their nominations.
Here's all you need to know about the Maharashtra MLC Election:
Members of the 288-strong state assembly constitute the electoral college for these biennial council polls. As per legal provision, the returning officer will communicate to the Election Commission of India (ECI) about nine candidates remaining in the fray for as many seats once the nomination withdrawal deadline is over (on May 14). The returning officer will communicate the status to the ECI, which will issue certificate of nomination to these candidates by May 26.
When did seats became vacant?
9 seats of MLC by MLAs became vacant on 24 April 2020 in Maharashtra (Annexure A). ECI on 03 April 2020 issued an order under Article 324 to defer the elections till further orders in view of COVID-19 circumstances.
These seats were earlier held by Neelam Diwakar Gorhe, Hemant Prabhakar Takle, Anand Rajendra Thakur, Smita Uday Wagh, Prithviraj Sayajirao Deshmukh, Kiran Jagannath Pawaskar, Arunbhau Janardan Adasad, Chandrakant Batesing Raghuvanshi and Harisingh Narsu Rathod. The Commission had on April 3 issued an order to defer the elections till further orders in view of Covid-19 circumstances.
When are the MLC election?
The EC has decided to conduct the biennial election in Maharashtra on May 21.
Nominations:
The last date of filing nominations was on May 11. The scrutiny of nominations will be on May 12 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature will be on May 14 as per the commission's schedule.
What time will the election be held and when will result be declared?
The polls will be conducted on May 21 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and the counting will be held on the same day at 5 p.m.
