Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray takes oath as legislator

Mumbai, May 18: Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray will on Monday took oath as a Member of Legislative Council. This is the first time a Sena chief will become a member of the state legislature.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister was accompanied by his wife Rashmi and his son Aditya Thackeray to the oath ceremony that was held in Vidhan Bhavan.

CM Thackeray was one of the nine candidates belonging to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi, an alliance comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress, and the opposition BJP who were declared elected unopposed to the council last week.

The eight new members of the council are Shiv Sena's Neelam Gorhe, NCP's Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari, Congress's Rajesh Rathod and BJP's Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke and Ramesh Karad.

As many as fourteen candidates were on the fray for the elections to the council, but subsequently four candidates, two each from the BJP and NCP, withdrew their nominations and an independent candidate's nomination was rejected in scrutiny.

Also, it was seen that the election of Shiv Sena Chief was crucial for him to continue as Maharashtra Chief Minister as he had to fulfil the constitutional requirement of becoming a member of either of the houses before May 27, six months from the day he took the oath as the Chief Minister.