Mumbai

Ten nominations were filed for as many seats in the Maharashtra legislative council as of Thursday with the ruling BJP fielding six candidates, while the opposition fielded one nominee for the sole seat it can win.

The biennial election slated for May 12 is, thus, likely to be unopposed unless another, last-minute nomination gets filed. Thursday is the last date to file nomination papers.

The Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) fielded Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Ambadas Danve, a former leader of opposition in the council.

Among the ruling allies, the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde re-nominated Neelam Gorhe, incumbent deputy chairperson of the council, and former MLA Bachchu Kadu who joined the party on Thursday. Gorhe will be contesting her fifth legislative council election.

The NCP led by deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar fielded former MLA Zeeshan Siddique.

The BJP nominated Sunil Vinayak Karjatkar, Madhavi Naik, Sanjay Natthuji Bhende, Vivek Bipindada Kolhe and Pramod Shantaram Jathar besides Pradnya Rajeev Satav for a separate byelection.

All six candidates filed their papers in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Karjatkar is a veteran BJP member, once close to late party stalwart Pramod Mahajan. He had acted as a poll strategist for the party earlier.

Vivek Kolhe is the son of former BJP MLA Snehalata Kolhe who could not contest the 2024 assembly polls from Kopargaon assembly segment as it was allotted to the ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Sanjay Bhende was in-charge of Union minister Nitin Gadkari's Lok Sabha election in 2024, and is chairperson of Nagpur Urban Cooperative Bank.

Madhavi Naik, general secretary of the state BJP, hails from Thane.

Pramod Jathar is a former BJP MLA from Sindhudurg district.

Some drama was witnessed on the opposition's side as the Shiv Sena (UBT) sprang a surprise by fielding Danve instead of party chief Uddhav Thackeray whose term as MLC is set to expire.

The Congress, which had insisted that Thackeray recontest as MVA candidate, was irked and announced that it would field its own candidate. After a delegation of Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders met state Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal, the party relented and decided to support Danve.

The term of nine council members including former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will end on May 13.

A separate by-election will be conducted for the vacancy caused by Pradnya Satav's resignation as a Congress MLC. Her term was originally to end on July 27, 2030, but she chose to switch her allegiance to the BJP.

Scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on May 2, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is May 4.

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The 288-member Maharashtra legislative assembly forms the electoral college for the elections, and each candidate will need at least 28 votes to win. In the ruling Mahayuti alliance, the BJP has 132 MLAs, the Shiv Sena 57 and the NCP 41. The alliance, thus, can win at least eight seats.

The opposition MVA has a combined strength of 46, enough to secure the election of one candidate.