21 vacancies in Legislative Council between May-July

Mumbai, Apr 26 (UNI) Congress and NCP, the main partners in the Democratic Front (DF) government in Maharashtra, have a tough task ahead to choose candidates for the 21 seats falling vacant in the 78-member Legislative Council in the next three months.

Of the 21 seats falling vacant, 11 would be chosen by the 289-member Legislative Assembly, six from local self bodies constituencies, three from Graduate constituencies and one from Teachers constituency.

Five members of the Congress, which is the single largest party in the Upper House with 21 seats, will retire between May 31 and July 27, while three of the NCP, which has a strength of 19, will retire.

Among the prominent members who will retire are Minister of State for Housing Dayanand Mhaske, Congress and Shiv Sena bigwigs Govindrao Adik and Pramod Navalkar respectively.

The first batch to retire before the commencement of the Monsoon session on July three are Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's younger brother Dilip, representing the Osmanabad-Beed-Latur local bodies constituency, Suresh Deshmukh representing Parbhani-Hingoli local bodies (both Congress), Dr Vasant Pawar, Ramdas Tadas (both NCP), Jagdish Gupta (Independent) representing Amravati local bodies. All the five members retire on June 21.

While the tenure of Shiv Sena's Anant Tare ends on May 31, Mr Navalkar, Nanasaheb Boraste representing Nashik Graduates, Sanjivini Raikar from Mumbai Teachers (both Ind), Ashok Modak representing Konkan Graduates (bjp) will retire on July 7.

On July 26 and 27, 11 seats from the 289-member Assembly constituency will fall vacant.

On July 26, Vilas Avchat and Kanyalal Kidwani (both Shiv Sena), Govindrao Adik and Natikodin Khatib (both Congress), Shantaram Karmalkar (BJP) will retire, while Ulhas Pawar (Congress), Kanta Nalawade (BJP), Vinayak Mete (NCP), Dr Deepak Sawant (Shiv Sena),Dayanand Mhaske (Independent), Jayant Patil (PWP) would retire on July 27.

Mr Mhaske is affiliated to Ramdas Athavale's RPI. If he is renominated, he will be banking on the support of Congress-NCP.

Raigad strongman Jayant Patil of Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) will seek support of Shiv Sena-BJP as PWP played a crucial role in the morale boosting victory of Shiv Sena candidate in the Srivardhan assembly by-election where Narayan Rane's candidate and former sena MLA lost early this year.

UNI MR KD RP VC1650 UNI MR Mumbai,Apr 26 (UNI) As many as 21 members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council including Minister of State for Housing Dayanand Mhaske,Congress and Shiv Sena bigwigs like Govindrao Adik and Pramod Navalkar respectively are retiring between May 31-July 27.

The first batch to retire before the Monsoon session of the Legislature begins