Maharashtra: Nomination Process For Biennial Elections To Elect 11 Members For Legislative Council Begins

Biennial elections are being held by the members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly to elect 11 members to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The nomination filing process has started, and interested candidates can file their nominations until July 2. Candidates can file their nominations in the Vidhansabha Secretariat office. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on July 3 in Vidhan Bhavan, Mumbai. Moreover, candidates can withdraw their nominations until 3 PM on July 5.

The biennial election for the 11 seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council will take place on July 12, as announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), because the tenure of the 11 MLCs will end on July 27.

MLCs Dr. Manisha Shyamsunder Kayande, Vijay Vitthal Girkar, Abdullah Khan A Latif Khan Durrani, Nilay Madhukar Naik, Adv. Anil Dattatraya Parab, Ramesh Narayan Patil, Ramrao Balajirao Patil, Dr. Wajahat Mirza Athar Mirza, Dr. Pragya Rajeev Satav, Mahadev Jagannath Jankar, and Jayant Prabhakar Patil are retiring from the Legislative Council on July 27.

Voting will be held on July 12 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The counting of votes will be done on the same day after 5:00 PM. The entire process will be completed by July 16, 2024.

All eyes are on these elections because they are happening after the Lok Sabha elections. The MVA won 31 seats out of 48, and the BJP-led Mahayuti won 17 seats in Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha election. Both alliances will engage in strong campaigning for this state council election. The strength of the Maharashtra State Assembly is 288, and Mahayuti has more MLAs in the assembly to vote than the MVA.

It has been said that circumstances have changed after the Lok Sabha elections. A large number of BJP members are blaming Ajit Pawar for the fewer seats won by Mahayuti. It will be interesting to see what the MVA does to elect more of their candidates.