The Congress party on Sunday announced that it will withdraw one of its two nominees for the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, paving way for state's chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to enter the Legislative Council unopposed. The Elections are scheduled for May 21.
"We have decided to field only one out of two nominees for the MLC elections, which means the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) will have five nominees for as many seats (out of the total nine),” a PTI report quoted State Congress president Balasaheb Thorat.
Thackeray isn't a member of either Houses of the state legislature. He is one of the nominees for the elections, which became necessary after terms of the sitting MLCs ended on April 24.
Earlier on Sunday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that the chief minister was not willing to contest the election unless elected unopposed. Sena had sent a message to Balasaheb Thorat to withdraw the party's second candidate, he added.
Congress had decided to field two candidates for Legislative Council elections, despite lacking numbers
Currently, BJP has 105 seats in the Legislative Assembly. 10 independent MLAs also support BJP. Shiv Sena has 56, NCP has 54 and Congress has 44 seats. 19 MLAs are from other parties.
