Jostling for council seats begins as 5 MLCs elected in state polls

Mumbai: With 5 MLCs winning in the assembly polls and 5 more MLC berths from the governor's quota still vacant, there is already hectic lobbying in the Mahayuti for becoming a council member. A total of 9 MLCs and 1 Rajya Sabha MP were in the fray in the assembly elections. All 5 winners are from the Mahayuti: state BJP Chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who won from Kampthi, BJP's Praveen Datke from Nagpur Central, BJP's Gopichand Padalkar from Jat, Shiv Sena's Amshya Padvi from Akkalkua and NCP's Rajesh Vitekar from Pathari.The MLCs who lost the polls are BJP's Ram Shinde, who lost to NCP (SP) candidate Rohit Pawar from Karjat-Jamkhed, Sena's Bhavana Gawli, who lost to Congress's Ameet Janak from Risod, NCP's (SP) Shashikant Shinde who lost to Sena's Mahesh Shinde in the Koregaon assembly segment and NCP's (SP) Satish Chavan who lost to BJP's Prashant Bamb from Gangapur.Gawli will remain an MLC till 2030 since she recently got elected. Shashikant Shinde and Satish Chavan's terms will end in 2026. Ram Shinde's term will end in 2028. "With 5 MLC berths now vacant and 5 from the governor's quota also vacant, there is hard lobbying to bag these berths. Many of those who switched over to the Sena, NCP and BJP before the polls wanted to get an MLC seat. Some of them also fought the assembly polls and lost, but they have asked their parties to adjust them as MLCs. There is a very long queue. Some of the MLAs who lost the polls are also looking for a backdoor entry and political rehabilitation via the MLC route," said a political observer.Among Rajya Sabha MPs, Sena's Milind Deora lost to Sena's (UBT) Aaditya Thackeray from Worli.In Oct, just before the election code of conduct came into place, the Mahayuti govt sent 7 names to governor CP Radhakrishnan, and all 7 were approved. The next day, the nominees from Sena, NCP, and BJP took oath. In Maharashtra, of the total 78 members in the state legislative council, 31 are elected by members of the legislative assembly (MLAs), 21 by elected representatives from local authorities (like the BMC), 12 are nominated by the governor, and 7 each are elected by graduates and teachers from Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Amravati divisions.