Maharashtra Biennial Election 2022: Voting For 10 Seats Today — Check Details

The term of nine sitting members of the legislative council will end on July 7, the election for the 10th seat was necessitated as it fell vacant after the death of BJP MLC RN Singh in January

New Delhi: The stage is set for the biennial Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) elections as the voting has begun on Monday with a total of 11 candidates in the fray for the 10 Council seats. The election will witness a close fight between the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance’s Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The MLAs from the electoral college for the MLC elections. The effective strength of the 288-member Maharashtra House has been reduced to 285 following the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke, while two NCP MLAs -Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh - are presently in jail and cannot vote as per the High Court order.

Smaller parties and Independents account for 25 MLAs.

The term of nine sitting members of the legislative council will end on July 7, the election for the 10th seat was necessitated as it fell vacant after the death of BJP MLC RN Singh in January 2022. According to the Election Commission, votes will be cast between 9 am to 4 pm, while the counting of votes will begin at 5 pm.

The BJP has 106 MLAs in the House, Shiv Sena-55, Congress-44, and NCP-52. 

Candidates in the fray

The Shiv Sena has nominated Sachin Ahir and Amshya Padvi, a party functionary from the tribal-dominated Nandurbar district. The Congress has fielded Mumbai Congress chief Bhai Jagtap and former minister Chandrakant Handore.

The BJP has renominated outgoing MLCs Darekar and Lad, and given tickets to Ram Shinde, Uma Khapre and Shrikant Bharatiya.

What are the chances of getting elected to the Legislative Council?

Each candidate needs 27 first preference votes to get elected to the Legislative Council.

BJP is expected to win four out of five seats. Mahavikas Aghadi has 161 members. - Therefore, two MLAs each from Shiv Sena and NCP will go to the Legislative Council.

With the help of allies and independents, Congress can get two seats. 

What will happen to the votes of Deshmukh and Malik?

If Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik do not vote, the quota will be reduced to 26. So much of the council's math depends on what happens to these two votes. Of course, both Mahavikas Aghadi and BJP have joined hands in this battle of prestige.

Meanwhile, NCP nominee Eknath Khadse on Sunday met BVA leader and Vasai MLA Hitendra Thakur to seek support of his party.  Recently, nominees of NCP, Congress, and BJP had called on Thakur separately apparently to seek the support of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, which has three MLAs in the Legislative Assembly.

Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday noted that the state Legislative Council elections will show that there will be no split in his party-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) while dismissing the chances of cross-voting. "The defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls (held on June 10 for six seats in Maharashtra) was unfortunate. The Shiv Sena votes were not split in the RS polls. We have an idea of what went wrong. Hence, there is no question of cross-voting tomorrow," he said.

The party has to work hard to get more MLAs elected in future, said Thackeray, whose party shares power with the NCP and Congress in the state.

Thackeray expressed confidence that both the Shiv Sena candidates - Sachin Ahir and Amshya Padvi - in the MLC polls will emerge as new leaders. The CM also said he had spoken to sitting Sena MLCs and senior leaders Subhash Desai and Diwakar Raote, who readily agreed to step aside.

In the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls for a total of six seats, the BJP led by Devendra Fadnavis clinched all three seats despite the numbers appearing in favour of the MVA on paper.