Raj Thackeray has blinked. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) will not contest Maharashtra’s Member of Legislative Council (MLC) polls scheduled for later this month. The decision was taken after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) sitting MLC Niranjan Davkhare met Mr. Thackeray on Friday, the last day of filing nominations. Last week, the State’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis too had met him.
Four MLC seats -- Mumbai Graduates’, Konkan Graduates’, Mumbai Teachers’ and Nashik Teachers’ – will go to the polls on June 26 and the results will be announced on July 1.
MNS had proposed filmmaker and party functionary Abhijeet Panse’s name from the Konkan Graduates’ seat, resulting in an unpleasant situation between the allies BJP and MNS. Mr. Thackeray had lent unconditional support to the BJP-led Mahayuti for Lok Sabha election that concluded this week.
“Mr. Panse will not contest the MLC polls,” announced MNS spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande.
The BJP has chosen Mr. Davkhare, Kiran Shelar and Shivnath Darade for Konkan Graduates’, Mumbai Graduates’ and Mumbai Teachers’ constituencies, respectively. The fourth seat, Mumbai Graduates’, from the Mahayuti coalition will be contested by Shinde faction of Shiv Sena’s Deepak Sawant.
From the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, Shiv Sena (UBT) was the first to name the candidates. The party has chosen sitting MLC Anil Parab and J M Abhyankar for the Mumbai Graduates’ and Mumbai Teachers’ seats, respectively. While Congress will be represented by Ramesh Keer from the Konkan Graduates’. Sitting MLC Kishor Darade too is a contender from the Nashik Teachers’ seat.
