Maharashtra Legislative Council polls: BJP lists candidates, Pankaja Munde’s name announced after defeat in LS polls

The BJP announced the names of five candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Council biennial elections on Monday. The list includes former MLA Pankaja Munde who unsuccessfully contested the recent Lok Sabha elections from Beed. This will be the first council election in Maharashtra since the NCP and Shiv Sena underwent vertical splits.

Elections to the Upper House of the state legislature will be held mere months before the assembly polls due in October as 11 MLCs retire on July 27. There are 14 vacancies in the 288-member house with the the electoral college now standing at 274. The quota for the winning candidate is 23.

The development also comes in the wake of consecutive poll losses for Munde — including a close contest against NCP (SP) candidate Bajrang Sonawane in Beed this year. She had previously lost the 2019 state Assembly elections against her cousin and NCP candidate Dhananjay Munde.

Tilekar hails from Pune, while Khot is from Sangli, and Gorkhe is a BJP functionary from Pimpri Chinchwad. The latter also belongs to the Matang community — one of the backward classes in the state. Meanwhile Nagpur-based Phuke is known to be close to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Members of the state Legislative Council are elected for a tenure of six years with one-third of the members retiring every two years.

Meanwhile the Congress re-nominated MLC Pradnya Satav as its candidate for the biennial elections on Monday. While two of the 11 retiring members belong to the Opposition party, its current strength will only allow one person to be elected to the Upper House. The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), an ally of the Congress, has declared support to Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) candidate Jayant Patil.

The BJP currently has 104 MLAs in the 288-member House while its coalition partners hold another 81 lawmakers (NCP has 41 MLAs and the Eknath Shinde-led Sena has 40). The Congress has 37, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 13 and NCP (SP) has 15.

(With inputs from agencies)