Candidates galore in Maharashtra Legislative Council polls

The Legislative Council elections have thrown up surprises in the selection of candidates. File pic

Making polling necessary for 10 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party's ally, Rayat Kranti Sanghatana chief and outgoing legislator, Sadabhau Khot, filed his nomination for the June 20 Legislative Council polls as the BJP-backed independent. He will be in addition to the BJP's five official candidates. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) nominated two senior leaders officially and one as a dummy. In all now there are 13 nominees in the fray.

Khot's nomination came as a surprise on Thursday morning as he was invited to the BJP leaders' meet and made to enter the race as an independent. He was a minister of state in the previous government. As expected, the NCP nominated the chairman of legislative council Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar and former BJP leader Eknath Khadse.

Voting for RS today

The BJP and the MVA will be put through an electoral test today in the Rajya Sabha polls in which the members of the Assembly vote. The BJP has put up three candidates, the Sena two and the Congress and the NCP one each. With numbers uncertain on both sides, the parties have been trying to keep their respective flock intact and woo independents and smaller parties to support them.

AIMIM was in talks with NCP on Thursday evening. Bahujan Vikas Aghadi's Hitendra Thakur hasn't opened his cards yet. Samajwadi Party leaders have met the MVA leaders and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The BJP had a meeting of its legislators a day ahead of polling. The MLAs were trained in preferential franchise.