A host of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party's Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, state Congress President and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and senior Shiv Sena leaders were present.

 

Besides, Legislative Council Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe also filed her nomination as a Shiv Sena candidate.

 

NCP candidates Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari also submitted their nominations to the Returning Officer, while Congress lone candidate Rajesh Rathod also followed suit.

 

From the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party four candidates are fielded: Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Praveen Datke, Gopichand Padalkar and Ajit Gopchhede, and they also filed their nomination papers this afternoon.

 

After the Congress consenting to withdraw its second candidate Rajkishore alias Papa Modi late on Sunday, the stage is set for all the nine candidates to be elected unopposed.

 

Accordingly, now the ruling MVA will get five seats and the BJP will get four nominees elected - without a contest - to the Upper House.

 

With the MLC elections, Thackeray - who was unanimously elected the MVA Chief Minister on November 28 - will make his debut as a Legislator, a mandatory requirement since he was not a member of either House of Legislature.

 

He will also become the second member of the state's numero uno political clan to enter the Legislature as an elected member after his son and Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray.

 

"The election to nine MLC seats will be unopposed. We discussed with the Congress leadership that this is not the time for elections but to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. They honoured our request and amicably withdrew their second candidate," Sena MP Sanjay Raut said after the nominations were filed on Monday.

 

The nine vacancies in the state's upper House will be filled up in the biennial poll through the electoral college comprising 288 Legislators of the Legislative Assembly.