The stage has been set for the Legislative Council bypolls that are going to be held on Monday. This time, the battle is between NCP’s Dhananjay Munde and independent candidate Prithviraj Kakade, supported by the Shiv Sena and BJP.
Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s nephew Dhananjay Munde, who had left the BJP a few months ago, is expecting full support from the Congress and independent MLAs, who constitute the electorate for the seat. A meeting of all Congress and NCP MLAs was called on Sunday to ensure full attendance during the byelections.
NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said that the meeting was called to ask all the legislators of both the parties to attend the elections. “MLAs from the rural areas who were not able to attend the meet, will be present at the Vidhan Bhavan to cast their votes by Monday morning,” Mr Malik told.
Political observers believe that the elections would be smooth for Mr Dhananjay Munde given the party’s strength in the lower House where the Congress-NCP alliance has 34 surplus votes, while the BJP-Sena-led opposition needs 36 more votes for its candidate to win. Both the candidates need 145 votes to win the byelections.