14 candidates including Uddhav Thackeray file nominations for 9 Maha Legislative Council seats

Fourteen candidates including Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray have filed nominations for nine seats of Legislative Council in the state which will be held on May 21.

Apart from Shiv Sena chief Thackeray, his party colleague Neelam Gorhe while from NCP- Shashikant Shinde, Amol Mitkari, Kiran Pawaskar and Shivajirao Garje have filed nominations today along with Rajesh Rathod from Congress and Shahbaz Rathod as Independent.

Six candidates from BJP Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke, Ranjeetsinh Mohite Patil, Ajit Gopchade, Sandeep Lele and Ramesh Karad have filed nominations.

Padalkar lost in the Assembly polls to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Baramati last year.

Today was the last day of filing nomination. Scrutiny of the forms will be done on May 12 and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is May 14.

Elections to the nine Legislative Council seats, which fell vacant on April 24, were withheld due to the coronavirus outbreak.

However, the Election Commission recently granted permission for holding the election to the Legislative Council in Maharashtra on May 21 and stated that necessary guidelines will need to be ensured for safety against COVID-19 during the polls.

( With inputs from ANI )