Ahead of the winter session of the state legislature scheduled to begin from December 16 at Nagpur, the opposition Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is likely to nominate Sujit Singh Thakur as Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Legislative Council. State BJP president Chandrakant Patil would be reappointed to the post.
The BJP has to propose the name of the LoP in the Council House on the first day of the winter session. After the state assembly election results on October 24, the BJP has seen its position change from Treasury bench to opposition. In Upper House, the BJP has 22 members and four independent supporting members.
The party will endorse name of Sujit Singh Thakur, party’s general secretary for the post of LoP. However, Vinayak Mete, president of Shiv Sangram Party and member of upper House has staked claim on the post of LoP. Mete has asserted that being an ally of BJP, he should get the chance.
As of today, in Upper House, the Shiv Sena has 12 members and two independent supporting members, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has 14 members and two independent supporting member whereas Congress has 13 members and one independent member supporting it.
Meanwhile, as the tenure of Chandrakant Patil as state president is about to end soon, he would be re-elected for the second successive term. Patil is known to belong to the Amit Shah camp and he is most likely to get second term instead of the party replacing him.
