With 11 candidates for 10 vacancies in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, polls for which will be held on June 10, the question that is being asked is if the four candidates of the Congress will sail through.
On Thursday, Kanhaiyalal Gidwani of the Congress, who had filed his nomination as an independent for the polls, withdrew from the fray. Mr. Gidwani said that Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre and Kripa Shankar Singh, president Mumbai Regional Congress Committee, held a meeting in the morning and persuaded him to withdraw.
“I had filed my nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls on June 17, as well as for the Council. The Chief Minister asked me to choose between the two and so I decided on the Rajya Sabha nomination. I therefore withdrew from the Council race,” Mr. Gidwani said. However, the Congress is yet to announce its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls to be held on June 17 and neither has it confirmed that Mr. Gidwani will be given ticket. There are six vacancies for the Rajya Sabha and the Congress has two seats.
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For the Legislative council, the Congress had officially declared three candidates for the polls, Sanjay Dutt, Husain Dalwai and Dipti Chaudhari. However, on Monday two more Congress members filed their nominations as Independents. Mr. Gidwani was one of them and Vijay Sawant from the Konkan who has contested against Mr. Rane (when he was in the Shiv Sena) is the other.
The Chief Minister and the Congress high command seem to be keen on supporting Mr. Sawant and some compromise seems to have been reached between Mr. Rane and Mr. Chavan on this issue.
As a result of all these machinations, the Congress is now faced with the task of getting four candidates elected. Speaking at a press conference Mr. Rane said, “Vijay Sawant is our fourth candidate and we all have to make sure all four are elected. We will take the help of all MLAs to ensure our victory.” To a question on whether the help of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) would be sought, Mr. Rane said all MLAs will be asked to help. He did not deny that the Congress was talking to the MNS for its support in the Council elections.
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Anant Kalse, the returning officer for the election, confirmed that 10 candidates were in the fray for the polls on June 10 and each candidate needed 27 votes in the first round to ensure victory. The four suspended MNS MLAs will be allowed to vote, as it is their Constitutional right, he said. Some arrangements would be made for their voting.