Pankaja Munde back in action, BJP gives backdoor entry in Vidhan Parishad, Other four name announced
Pankaja will be one of the 5 MLC declared by BJP Maharashtra
MAHARASHTRA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra on Monday announced the candidatures of five individuals for the upcoming biennial elections to the state legislative council.
The party's list includes OBC leader and former minister Pankaja Munde, along with four others - former MLA Yogesh Tilekar, Parinay Phuke, Amit Gorkhe, and Sadabhau Khot.
The elections will be held on July 12 to fill 11 seats of the Upper House of the state legislature, where the term of the current members is set to end on July 27.
Pankaja Munde, the BJP's national general secretary, had lost the 2019 state assembly polls and the recent Lok Sabha elections from Beed against the NCP (SP)'s Bajrang Sonawane.
Among the other candidates, Tilekar is from Pune, Khot is from Sangli, and Gorkhe is a BJP functionary from Pimpri Chinchwad, belonging to the Matang community - one of the backward classes in the state. Phuke, hailing from Nagpur, is known to be close to BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
With 14 vacancies in the 288-member state assembly, the electoral college for the biennial elections comprises 274 members, and the quota for a winning candidate is 23.
The elections come just months ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, which are due in October. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP has 41 MLAs, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has 40, and the BJP has 103 members in the state legislature. The Congress has 37 MLAs, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 13, and NCP (SP) has 15 members.
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