Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray along with eight others took oath as Members of Legislative Council on Monday. The candidates were on May 14 elected unopposed to the state Legislative Council. The election results were announced as only nine nominations were filed for nine seats.
Besides Uddhav Thackeray, his party leader Neelam Gorhe was also elected, among others. From Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Pravin Datke, Gopichand Padalkar, Ranjeetsinh Mohite Patil and Ramesh Karad were elected whereas Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari from (Nationalist Congress Party) NCP, Congress' Rajesh Rathod were also among the elected candidates.
Uddhayv Thackeray's election to the Maharashtra Legislative Council denotes that he shall able to complete his full tenure as the Chief Minister of the state.
Till now, the Uddhav was not a member of either the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council despite being sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in November 2019. Uddhav had to achieve the constitutional condition of becoming a member of either of the houses before May 27, six months from the day he took the oath as CM.
Uddhav Thackeray was one of the nine candidates belonging to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi, a coalition comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress and the opposition BJP who were elected unopposed to the council recently.
The Shiv Sena had plans to nominate Thackeray for the April biennial elections to the Legislative Council but owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, all polls were postponed by the Election Commission of India.
Later, the MVA government resolved to propose his name for one of the two vacant seats from the Governor's quota to the Council.
However, as there were certain technicalities, Thackeray spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the crisis situation.
Thereafter, the Shiv Sena cited an emergency and urged Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to impress upon the ECI to conduct Council polls, to prevent a potential constitutional crisis in the state. The poll schedule was announced thereafter and the MVA and opposition BJP ensured that it was concluded without a contest.
(With inputs from IANS)
