A day after deciding to field a second candidate for the State Legislative Council polls, thus paving the way for a contest between 10 hopefuls for the nine MLC seats, the Congress on Sunday withdrew its second nominee from the fray.
The decision follows Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s request to all parties in the ruling alliance that the May 21 election must be concluded unopposed. The CM himself is in the fray for an MLC seat. State Congress president Balasaheb Thorat announced the party’s rethink on the second candidate after day-long deliberations among the three allies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
“Considering the novel coronavirus crisis and fact that Mr. Thackeray is going to be contesting, we decided to accept the request made by Uddhavji to have this election unopposed. It will be difficult for all party MLAs to travel to Mumbai for elections and therefore, we decided that instead of six, the MVA will have five candidates,” he said.
‘Could win six seats’
Mr. Thorat said had conditions been different and the virus had not been around, the MVA could have easily won six MLC posts as this is a preferential voting process.
On Saturday night, Mr. Thorat had announced that apart from Rajesh Rathod, Rajkishor alias Papa Modi will be contesting the MLC elections from the Congress, surprising one and all. Shiv Sena leader Milind Narvekar supposedly held talks with him soon after the announcement. According to sources, Mr. Thackeray conveyed the message that he wishes that the election goes unopposed.
Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party on Sunday afternoon declared the names of its two candidates for the polls. Former minister Shashikant Shinde from Satara district and young leader Amol Mitkari from Akola district will be the party’s candidates.
BJP dig at CM
Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashish Shelar said it is the government’s responsibility to conduct unopposed elections and differences between the MVA allies should be sorted out by themselves. By evening, all three parties held a meeting and the decision to withdraw extra 10th candidate was taken.
Monday is the last date to file nominations, and with only nine nominations for nine seats, the election is likely to go unopposed.
