It is not just the state political parties that are vying for the 10 legislative council seats in the MLC elections. With the election witnessing political leaders coming up with their own personal agenda, the results of the elections might very well turn out to be an intriguing affair.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Gopinath Munde, who made way for his daughter Pankaja in the state Assembly elections, is
now pushing for an MLC ticket for his nephew Dhananjay.
Names of former MLA Madhu Chavan, Prof. Manisha Kayande, BJP women’s wing in-charge Manisha Chaudhary,
ex-MLA Atul Shah, Raj Purohit, former MLA Shobhatai Phadanvis
and Bhai Mirkar are currently doing the rounds in the BJP.
However, the final decision will depend on Mr Munde. According to sources, the state BJP leader is pushing for his nephew Dhananjay.
When Mr Munde got elected as MP from Beed, the seat vacated by Mr Munde from the state
legislative Assembly was to be contested by his nephew. Dhananjay has been associated with the BJP’s youth wing for years.
However, at the time, Mr Munde was in a dilemma, as he also wanted his daughter Pankaja to get elected. Pankaja contested the elections and won, but Mr Munde, might now try and pull strings to get an MLC seat for Dhanajay. Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena is upbeat and wants to have as many seats as possible in the upper house of the Vidhan Sabha.
The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine are keeping its options open for the moment, and delaying the seat sharing decisions.
Both Madhukar Pichad, NCP regional chief and Manikrao Thakre, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief have
said that they have not decided on the number of seats that either party will have. Party sources say that even the time of the meeting to decide the issue has not been fixed yet.
“There is no proposal as to how many seats will be contested by which party. There is no question of
any dispute. I am sure that the picture will be clear in a couple of days,” said Mr Thakre.
On the other hand, Mr Pichad said, “There is no proposal from the Congress. If we win more seats, that would naturally help the coalition.”