MUMBAI: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole and state Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat met Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday to urge the opposition BJP to withdraw its candidate and ensure the Congress nominee gets elected unopposed in the next month's bpoll to a Rajya Sabha seat from the state.
The by-election was necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MP Rajiv Satav in May this year.
The Congress, which shares power with the Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra, has fielded Rajni Patil, while the BJP has nominated Sanjay Upadhyay for the bypoll, to be held on October 4,.
"Thorat and Patole met Fadnavis to persuade the BJP to withdraw its candidate and facilitate unopposed win of the Congress candidate," a Congress source said.
The scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on Thursday and the last date of withdrawal is September 27.
Voting, if neccessary, will be on October 4 and counting of votes will be done the same day.
The 288-member Maharashtra Assembly forms the electoral college for the poll.
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), Peasants and Workers Party (1), Jansurajya Shakti Party (1) and Independents 13.
One seat is lying vacant since the death of Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar in April this year.
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