13 in fray for 11 MLC seats from Assembly quota

Mumbai, May 25 (UNI) Voting for the biennial Maharashtra Legislative Council elections to be elected by 289 members of Legislative Assembly will be held on June one where 13 candidates are in fray for 11 seats.

Sources said chances of horse-trading were ample as both Congress and NCP had fielded an extra candidate each, while PWP contestant was also in fray.

The 13 candidates, who are in the race include Mr Ulhas Pawar, Mr Govindrao Adik, Mr S Q Zama and Mr Rajan Teli (Congress), Mr Arun Gujarathi, Ms Usha Darade, Mr Vasant Oswal (NCP) besides Mr Pasha Patel and Mr Keshavrao Mankar (BJP), Mr Parshuram Uparkar and Mr Vijay Loke (Shiv Sena), Mr Jayant Patil (PWP), and Mr Preetam Shegaonkar (RPI-supported by NCP).

Of these, Mr Pawar, Mr Adik and Mr Patil are retiring members, who are seeking re-election. The quota for one member to get elected is 25 first preference votes.

The electoral college for the 11 seats is the 289-member Legislative Assembly, which has the statistics of Congress-73, NCP-71, Shiv Sena-58, BJP-54, PWP-2, CPM-3, JSS-4 and BBM, RPI, Swatantra Bharat Party and ABS with one member each. There are 19 Independents and one nominated member.

According to Legislature joint secretary Umesh Khadakikar, there would be a secret ballot voting for the council elections.

He said, while the voting would start at 0900 hrs and end at 1600 hrs, the counting will take place on the same day upto 1700 hrs.

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