BJP announces five candidates for Maharashtra MLC polls

The ruling BJP on Tuesday announced the names of five candidates for the next months elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The party named Sunil Vinayak Karjatkar, Madhavi Naik, Sanjay Natthuji Bhende, Vivek Bipindada Kolhe and Pramod Shantaram Jathar as its nominees for the May 12 biennial polls.

The ruling BJP on Tuesday announced the names of five candidates for the next month's elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The party named Sunil Vinayak Karjatkar, Madhavi Naik, Sanjay Natthuji Bhende, Vivek Bipindada Kolhe and Pramod Shantaram Jathar as its nominees for the May 12 biennial polls. Karjatkar is a veteran party worker, who acted as a strategist for some state elections in the past. He was once close to BJP leader late Pramod Mahajan. Vivek Kolhe is the son of former party MLA Snehalata Kolhe. She did not contest the 2024 assembly polls as the Kopargaon assembly segment in Ahilyanagar district as it was allotted to ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Sanjay Bhende was in-charge of Union minister Nitin Gadkari's Lok Sabha election in 2024, and is the chairperson of Nagpur Urban Cooperative Bank at present. Madhavi Naik, general secretary of the state unit of the party, who hails from Thane is also nominated by the party for the Upper House of the state legislature. Pramod Jathar is from Sindhudurg and former MLA of the party. The announcement comes ahead of the filing of nominations, the last date for which is April 30. Scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on May 2, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is May 4. Nine council members, including former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, are retiring on May 13. Polling for the elections will be held on May 12 from 9 am to 4 pm, and counting of votes will take place at 5 pm the same day. The election process is scheduled to be completed by May 13. A quota of 28 votes is required for a candidate to get elected to the legislative council. In the ruling Mahayuti alliance, the BJP has 132 MLAs, the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde has 57, and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar has 41. Based on this strength, the alliance can ensure the victory of eight candidates. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has a combined strength of 46, which is sufficient to secure the election of one candidate. It will need an additional 10 votes to win a second seat, which appears difficult under the current numbers.