Maharashtra cabinet to recommend 12 names for legislative council seat nominations

The list of 12 names for the 12 Legislative Councils appointed by the Governor will be discussed in the Cabinet on Thursday. In April, the term of 12 legislators nominated by the government in the state council will expire. The list of recommendations of these 12 names will be sent to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari by the Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The cabinet meeting, initially scheduled for Wednesday, has been rescheduled for Thursday.

The ruling Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP have a long list of aspirants for 12 seats in the Legislative Council. The highest number is 300 candidates fielded from NCP, 50 from Congress and 15 from Shiv Sena. As per the agreement of the three parties, each party will get 4 seats. 

The Shiv Sena list of aspirants include names of Milind Narvekar, a close associate of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, former minister Sachin Ahir, former MLA Sunil Shinde, Yuva Sena's Rahul Kanal, Vijay Karanjikar, Bhausaheb Chaudhary, Nitin Bangude Patil and former minister Arjun Khotkar. 

NCP's list of aspirants includes Eknath Khadse, Raju Shetty of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Uttamrao Jankar, Shivajirao Garje, Aditi Nalawade, singer Anand Shinde and Shriram Shete. After two seats in the Legislative Council became vacant last year, the NCP had recommended the names of Aditi Nalawade and Shivajirao Garje to the Governor, but no decision has been taken yet.

As far as Congress is concerned, the list includes party spokesman Sachin Sawant, Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress Chief and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat’s nephew Satyajit Tambe, former legislator Mohan Joshi and former minister Naseem Khan.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi government may recommend Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar for her nomination from the Governor's quota in the state council. She had fought Lok Sabha elections last year on Congress ticket from North Mumbai but lost to BJP nominee Gopal Shetty.