Ruling partners Cong-NCP slug it out over Council seat

Mumbai, May 25 (UNI) The differences between Congress and NCP have come to the fore as both the ruling partners have fielded one more candidate each beyond their capacity for the June one biennial Maharashtra Legislative Council elections.

''We decided to field fourth candidate Rajan Teli after we found that NCP, which was earlier thinking of supporting PWP candidate, fielded their fourth candidate at 1400 hrs - one hour before the end of the timing for filing the nominations on May 22,'' Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Prabha Rau said.

Mr Teli filed his nomination papers at 1445 hrs, Ms Rau told reporters here today.

Meanwhile, sources in Congress said Revenue Minister Narayan Rane is not banking on any Congress vote for getting his supporter Teli elected, but he is banking on division in Sena votes. He has also assured the party that the preference votes of first three candidates of the party will not be disturbed.

Interestingly, both Congress and NCP expressed firm confidence in getting elected their all the candidates.

After the unopposed election of six candidates to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra in April, it was expected that all the 11 candidates will be elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council.

But, the last one hour's development on the last day of filing the nomination changed the situation as Congress and NCP fielded their candidates.

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

With the required quota of votes for the election of one candidate being 25, it is expected that Congress and NCP will be able to elect their three candidates each. NCP is supporting the RPI(A) candidate in the third seat. On the other hand, the Sena-BJP combine will also be able to retain two seats each.

More UNI JM GK YA HT1830