Maharashtra MLAs to elect 11 council members on July 12

The elections will be held barely months before the state assembly elections, which are expected to take place in October this year. The biennial election held two years ago was marred by cross voting by all-party MLAs resulting in surprise defeat of Congress’s first-choice candidate Chandrakant Handore. That election was also a precursor of Eknath Shinde’s rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray, which brought government change in the state.

Of the 11 MLCs retiring on July 27, four are from the BJP, two from the Congress and one each from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Peasants and Workers Party, and Rashtriya Samaj Party.

The last date of filing nominations is July 2 and their scrutiny will take place the next day, said an EC notification. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is July 5. If required, polling will be held on July 12 between 9 am and 4 pm, and counting of votes will start at 5 pm the same day, according to the notification.

This will be the first legislative council election in Maharashtra where MLAs will be voting after the vertical split in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde claims to have the support of 39 MLAs, while the NCP headed by deputy CM Ajit Pawar claims to have 41 members of the lower house on its side in the 288-strong assembly. The BJP, the single largest party in the assembly, has 104 MLAs, while Congress has 43 MLAs.

Going by the official strength of all parties, BJP can win three nominations while, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar-led NCP and Congress can win one each. There will be a major tussle over at least five remaining seats if elections are held.