Sena nominee withdraws from legislative council polls

One of the Shiv Sena’s candidates, Rahul Narvekar, withdrew from the biennial elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Thursday. The voting for nine seats was slated for March 20 and Thursday was the last day for withdrawal.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was not even aware about Narvekar’s decision to withdraw. Party insiders were shocked, wanting to know on whose directives Narvekar withdrew.

“With a quota of 29 votes for each candidate, it was quite difficult to mobilise adequate votes for Narvekar, considering the party’s strength of 45 with the support of one independent. Besides, after Uddhavji took a strong objection against former BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s meeting with MNS chief Raj Thackeray, the situation was most volatile,” a Sena leader, who did not want to be identified, told Business Standard.

With Narvekar’s move, nine members — three each belonging to the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), two from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one from the Shiv Sena — would be elected unopposed to the state council. The list of Congress nominees include  council chairman Shivajirao Deshmukh, former MP Haribhau Rathod and former legislator Chandrakant Raghuvanshi. The NCP had fielded Hemant Takle, Kiran Pawaskar and Anand Thakur. The Sena’s present legislator Neelam Gorhe would be re-elected.

BJP’s leader Vinod Tawde and Pandurang Phundkar would also be re-elected.

In the 289-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the Congress, with 81 members, has the support of 18 independents and smaller parties. NCP, with 62 members, is backed by 11 independents and a member of the Rashtriya Samaj Party. The BJP, with its 47 members, is supported by one independent.

Elections to the Maharashtra Assembly would be held in October this year.