Oppn MVA, ruling Sena and NCP yet to declare candidates for Maharashtra legislative council polls

Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra is yet to declare its candidate for the alliance's lone winnable seat in the elections to the state legislative council even as the deadline for nomination filing ends on Thursday. Shiv Sena (UBT) president and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is seen as a strong contender for the seat, but the party is yet to officially announce his candidature. Nine members of the Upper House of the state legislature, including Thackeray, are retiring on May 13. Polling for these seats will be held on May 12, and counting of votes will take place the same day. The election process is scheduled to be completed by May 13. The deadline for nomination filing for the legislative council polls is 3 pm on April 30. While the BJP has fielded five candidates, its Mahayuti alliance partners Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are yet to announce the names of its nominees for the remaining seats. Talking to reporters here about the MVA's candidate, Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said, ''You will know at 11 am tomorrow who files the nomination when our candidate climbs the steps of the Vidhan Bhavan.'' He said Congress' state president Harshwardhan Sapkal, NCP's working president Supriya Sule have requested Uddhav Thackeray to contest the legislative council polls. ''Yesterday, (AICC general secretary) K C Venugopal, (AICC in-charge of Maharashtra) Ramesh Chennithala took a stand that Uddhav Thackeray should be part of the state legislature and lead the MVA,'' Raut added. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Milind Narvekar, a close aide of Thackeray, on Tuesday said it is 99 per cent confirmed that the former CM will be the MVA's candidate for the council polls. ''But since he is a Thackeray, nothing can be said for the remaining one per cent...But the boss is always right,'' Narvekar said. Since the Lok Sabha elections, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has used a strategy to not declare the candidates until they file the nomination papers. The reason behind this surprise move is to ensure that there are no last minute pressure tactics from those who could not make it to the list, a leader pointed out. For the Rajya Sabha polls held in March this year, the Shiv Sena declared Jyoti Waghmare as its candidate barely an hour before filing the nomination papers. A separate by-election will be conducted on May 12 for the vacancy caused by former Congress member Pradnya Satav's resignation. The term of Satav, who joined the BJP after resigning, was originally due to end on July 27, 2030. The BJP has given candidature to Satav for the bypoll.

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