MUMBAI: The Congress on Monday declared the candidature of senior party leader Rajni Patil for the next month's Rajya Sabha byelection which was necessitated due to the death of the sitting MP Rajiv Satav.
Patil is the candidate of the Shiv Sena-headed Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of which Congress is a constituent, the party said in a release.
BJP has announced the name of Sanjay Upadhyay, general secretary of the party's Mumbai unit, for the October 4 contest, a party spokesman said on Monday.
Satav died on May 16 this year.
His term will end on April 2, 2026.
The last date for filing nomination papers for the bypoll is September 22.
The scrutiny of papers will take place on September 23 and the last date for withdrawal of papers is September 27.
Voting will be held on October 4 and counting of votes will take place on the same day.
The 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly forms the electoral college for the bypoll.
The BJP has the highest 106 MLAs in the House, followed by Shiv Sena (56), NCP (53), Congress (43), Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (3), Samajwadi Party (2), AIMIM (2), Prahar Janshakti Party (2), MNS (1), CPM (1), Swambhimani Party (1), Rashtriya Samaj Paksh (1), Krantikari Shetkari Party (1), and Independents 13.
One seat is lying vacant since the death of Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar in April.
Patil, 63, was earlier elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha in 2013 and this will be for the second time she will enter the elder's house with the tenure up to April 2, 2026.
Patil had represented the Beed Lok Sabha seat in 1996.
She started her career in electoral politics by getting elected to the Zilla Parishad in the 1990s.