Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are soon going to lose their dominance in the Legislative Council for lack of MLAs and MPs to get elected to them, respectively.
Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are soon going to lose their dominance in the Legislative Council for lack of MLAs and MPs to get elected to them, respectively.
Three Congress and four NCP candidates are due to retire from the Council in June. However, the parties will be able to get only one member each elected, and will have to struggle for a second seat in the council.
Among those slated to retire are NCP’s Dhananjay Munde, who is leader of Opposition in the Council; Ramraje Nimbalkar, who is chairman of the House; Prakash Binsale; and Vasant Davkhare, who is deputy chairman. Among them, Mr Munde and Mr Nimbalkar’s seats are prestigious for the party; however the party has 41 MLAs and 28 votes are required by a candidate to get elected. Others scheduled to retire include Muzaffar Husain, Dipti Chaudhary and Vijay Sawant from Congress; Subhash Desai and Diwakar Raote from Shiv Sena; Shobha Fadnavis from BJP; and Vinayak Mete from Shiv Sangram party which enjoys the BJP’s support.
Sena, with 63 MLAs, has declared candidature of Mr Desai and Mr Raote. Congress, with 42 MLAs, can get one member elected without any problem but will have to make extra efforts for a second seat. BJP, with 122 MLAs, will definitely field more candidates as only one is slated to retire this time.
A senior Congress leader said the party would surely field two candidates. “The decision about fielding a third candidate is up to the high command. We are also talking to NCP so that their votes can help our third candidate,” he said. On its part, NCP is busy drawing votes from independents and other parties. “We will have to plan first to retain our four seats. We have independent supporters also. Nothing has been finalised yet,” said a NCP leader.
Currently, NCP has 28 MLCs; Congress 20; BJP 13; and Sena 7 MLCs in the legislative council.
Speaking of the Rajya Sabha, Praful Patel and Ishwarlal Jain from NCP; Piyush Goyal from BJP; and Vijay Darda and Avinash Pandey from Congress — are all due to retire next month. NCP is trying to get Mr Patel re-elected just as Sena is pushing to field Sanjay Raut once again. Mr Goyal, being a minister, will serve another term. Congress however is yet to declare its candidates.
