The Congress is looking for a seat for Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who has declared that he would enter the state legislature by contesting a by-election to the State Legislative Council.
Chavan was a Rajya Sabha MP before he was sent to Maharashtra to replace Ashok Chavan following the Adarsh scam.
From the MLAs quota, terms of sitting Congress MLCs Sanjay Dutt, Hussain Dalwai, Dipti Chaudhari and Vijay Sawant would last till July 2016.
Congress sources said that in all probability, Chavan will be fielded from MLAs quota seat, and MLC Sanjay Dutt could be asked to quit to make vacancy.
State Congress president Manikrao Thakre has only 11 months' tenure left as an MLC, so it is unlikely that he will be asked to vacate seat for the Chief Minister.
Dalwai was denied a ministerial berth at the last moment when Chavan took over in December, and since now he has been promised a ministry, he may not be asked to resign as MLC, party sources said.
"Vijay Sawant, though a Congressman, was elected as an independent MLC. Dipti Chaudhari who was given the MLC ticket being an OBC and a woman has no organisational background other than being a Pune mayor some years ago," sources said, while discussing who could be asked to resign. When asked if he would make way for Chavan, MLC Sanjay Dutt told PTI that he would obey the party diktat.
The party will find it very difficult to force any member to resign, Congress sources said, recounting the example of NCP's Ram Pandagale.
He had been asked to vacate his MLC seat to make way for Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar who lost his assembly seat in delimitation of constituencies.
NCP wanted to accommodate Nimbalkar in the upper house, but Pandagale refused to quit. Eventually Nimbalkar entered Legislative Council from another MLC seat, when it became vacant.
Sources said the chief minister was keen on entering the Assembly rather than the Council, but Congress felt that the political situation was not conducive.
Maan, the assembly constituency in Satara district where independent MLA Jaykumar Gore was willing to resign for Chavan's sake, was not found to be "safe" enough.
Karad MLA and former minister Vilaskaka Patil, a Congressman, was not inclined to resign. Chavan too hails from Karad.
