The Election Commission of India has declared elections for the five seats of the state legislative council on December 1. This decision was announced by the ECI on Monday, the seats got vacant on July 19 and are from graduates and teachers constituencies.
As per the notification issued by the ECI on Monday, the last date for filing of nominations is November 12 and the nomination papers can be withdrawn by November 17.
HOW DOES THE SEATS GOT VACANT?
Some MLCs retired on July 19 and that is how the seats got vacant. The retired MLCs are
Three MLCs from graduates constituencies
- Satish Chavan (NCP)
- Chandrakant Patil (BJP)
- Anil Sole (BJP)
Two MLCs from teachers constituencies
- Shrikant deshpande (Independent)
- Dattratray Sawant (Independent)
The ECI could not hold polls for the vacant seats in the last few months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
HOW WOULD THE ELECTION PROCESS BE HELD AMIDST CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC?
The ECI has issued strict guidelines for the election process in view of the coronavirus pandemic so that basic precautionary measures can be followed. Some of the guidelines are
- Every person has to wear a mask during the poll process
- Social distancing norms to be followed by everyone.
- Sanitizers to be made available
- Thermal screening of all persons
Apart from this, the term of 12 legislators nominated to the upper house from the governor’s quota expired in June and the seats are vacant since then as the state has not made any recommendation to the governor. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has not sent the names of 12 nominees to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari for appointing them as Governor nominated members to the legislative council. On Wednesday the state cabinet authorized the chief minister to send the names. All the three ruling parties- Shiv Sena, NCP and congress have decided to share an equa; number of seats i.e. four and they are supposed to give their names to the chief minister.
