MUMBAI: All 10 candidates in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) elections are set to be elected unopposed after the Congress decided to support the Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Ambadas Danave.
The Election Commission had announced polls for 10 MLC seats, with voting scheduled for May 10 and April 30 as the last date for filing nominations. With 10 candidates filing nominations for 10 seats, all are likely to be elected unopposed.
As per party strength, the BJP is set to secure six seats, its ally Shiv Sena one seat, while the NCP and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will get one seat each.
Differences had emerged within the MVA over nominations, with both Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) initially eyeing the lone seat. However, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray spoke to K. C. Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala, urging them not to field a Congress candidate and to support Ambadas Danave as a joint MVA nominee.
He also spoke to Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal, while a Shiv Sena (UBT) delegation met him ahead of the nomination deadline. MVA leaders later extended support to Danave at Vidhan Bhavan.
Maharashtra Congress legislative party leader Vijay Wadettiwar said the party is supporting Shiv Sena (UBT) in the MLC polls and will receive support in return for an upcoming Rajya Sabha seat.
On the ruling side, the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde fielded candidates Bacchu Kadu and Neelam Gore. The NCP nominated its youth and minority leader Zesshan Siddique.
The BJP fielded six candidates — Pranya Satav, Sunil Karjatkar, Madhavi Naik, Vivek Kolhe, Pramod Jathar and Sanjay Bhende.
With nominations equal to the number of seats, all candidates are set to be declared elected unopposed.