Mumbai: All eyes are now on the Congress as to whether it wants to field two candidates and force an election on May 21, or field just one candidate and let Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray sail through, elected unopposed to the Legislative Council on May 21 and also retain his Chief Ministers post.
It is not just that the Shiv Sena’s desire, even the local Election Commission of India (ECI) staff is hoping and praying that the May 21 election to the 9 Elected by MLA’s is held unopposed. Officials from the ECI while speaking on conditions of anonymity disclosed that if the elections are contested as ‘unopposed’, it will save them the nightmare of conducting the polls in such a scenario.
An ECI source disclosed that since Vidhan Bhavan has been declared as the designated polling center, all arrangements will have to be made while adhering to the government and ECI instructions on COVID-19 norms. “We will have to ensure that all the people, including the 288 MLAs maintain social distancing on the polling day. Instructions are that there should be separate rooms for patients declared as COVID-19 Negative or Positive. It will be a tough and harrowing time to ensure that all the rules are followed by everybody. Hence it is better if the polls are held unopposed.”
On Friday, May 8, all the four candidate’s nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – Pravin Datke, Gopichand Padalkar, Ajit Gopchade and Ranjitsinha Mohite-Patil filed their nomination papers before the Election Returning Officer at Vidhan Bhavan.
Gopichand Padalkar is the same person who had given a vain fight to NCPs Ajit Pawar in the 2019 Assembly elections in Baramati constituency. The candidature bears an unmistakable stamp of Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis.
Given the fact that the official quota of votes required to win a seat in this elections is 29 votes, the BJP is falling short of 11 votes for its fourth candidate. Yet it has fielded the fourth candidate. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has announced the candidature’s of Amol Mitkari and Shashikant Shinde. Whereas, the Shiv Sena is most certain to nominate Uddhav Thackeray and its deputy chairman in legislative council, Dr Neelam Gorhe as its two candidate’s.
It now all depends on the Congress whether it decides to field just one candidate or fields two candidates and forces an election. The party high command will have to decide between Mohan Joshi and Arif Mohammad Naseem Khan.
As per the present scenario the BJP has fielded four candidates given its strength of 105 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly. To get all its four candidates elected, the BJP will need 116 votes and hence is falling short by 11 votes to get its fourth candidate elected. This will depend upon whether there are 10 candidates in the poll fray for the 9 vacancies.
Similarly, the Sena with its strength of 56 MLAs, it will need two more votes. Likewise, the NCP with its strength of 54 MLAs, will need four more votes for its candidates to get elected, if in case an election in forced.
The Congress here is caught on the horns of dilemma. If it decides to field just one candidate, then it has 15 surplus votes. If it forces an election, then it will need 14 more votes to get its second candidate to get elected.
The current party wise strength in the 288 member Legislative Assembly is as follows: BJP 105, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54, Congress 44, BVA 3, MIM 2, Samajwadi Party 2, PJP 2, MNS 1, JSS 1, KTSTP 1, RSP 1, SWP 1, CPI-M 1, PWP-I 1 and Independents 13.
If the elections are held unopposed, then the above calculations have no meaning and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will heave a sigh of relief. Sources, disclosed that Thackeray had wanted to file his nomination papers on Thursday, May 7, but due to some communication gap and the day being a declared holiday, he was unable to file his nomination papers.
There will be a mad rush now of the candidates to file their nomination papers on the last day of the filing of nomination papers on May 11. There will be a holiday on May 9 (second Saturday) and May 10, Sunday. As it is there was a holiday on May 7, on account of Buddha Purnima. Three days have already been lost on account of holidays. Hence, the authorities will be under tremendous pressure on May 11 to ensure that the nomination process goes off peacefully.
Las date for filing of nomination papers is May 11. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be taken up on May 12. Last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is May 14. Voting for the election (if contested) will be held on May 21 from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm at the Vidhan Bhavan. Counting of votes and declaration of results will be held after 5.00 pm on May 21 and the entire election process is to be completed by May 26.
