On Monday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was on Monday afternoon sworn in as a Member of the Legislative Council. Eight other members of different political parties also took oath as members of the Upper House of Maharashtra Legislature in a brief ceremony.
A function was held at Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai, where Council Chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar administered the oath to Thackeray and others. Uddhav Thackeray and eight others were declared elected unopposed to the Upper House on May 14.
They include Legislative Council Deputy Chairperson and Shiv Sena's Neelam Gorhe, Nationalist Congress Party's Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari and Congress' Rajesh Rathod.
From the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party the new MLCs are Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Ramesh Karad, Pravin Datke, and Gopichand Padalkar. Thackeray was accompanied by his wife Rashmi Thackeray and other government officials.
The 288-member Legislative Assembly was the electoral college for the biennial elections to the nine seats. With this election, 59-year-old Thackeray, who is also the president of Shiv Sena, makes his debut as a legislator.
Sworn in as Chief Minister on November 28, Thackeray had to fulfil a constitutional requirement of becoming a member of either house of the state legislature within six months.
