Polls to 16 seats in Maharashtra legislative council on June 18

The Election Commission announced on Monday polls to 16 seats in the Maharashtra legislative council to be held on June 18.

According to the poll body's notification, the process will officially begin with the filing of nominations on May 25, followed by polling on June 18 and the counting of votes on June 22.

Nominations will be scrutinised on June 2, and the last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is June 4.

The 16 local authorities constituencies going to the polls include Solapur, Ahmednagar, Thane, Jalgaon, Sangli-cum-Satara, Nanded, Yavatmal, Pune, Bhandara-Gondia, Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Nashik, Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli, Amravati, Osmanabad-Latur-Beed, Parbhani-Hingoli, and Aurangabad-Jalna.

Elections to several of these seats had been pending since the terms of their sitting members expired in 2022. The process was delayed as the civic body polls were also overdue.

Among members whose terms ended earlier were Prashant Paricharak (Solapur) and Arunkaka Jagtap, who retired as MLCs in January 2022, and Ravindra Phatak (Thane), who retired from the council in June 2022.

Several council members retired in December 2022, including Chandubhai Patel from Jalgaon, Mohanrao Kadam from Sangli-Satara, Amarnath Rajurkar from Nanded, Dushyant Chaturvedi from Yavatmal, Anil Bhosale from Pune, and Parinay Fuke from Bhandara-Gondia.

Aniket Tatkare (Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg), Narendra Darade (Nashik), Ramdas Ambatkar (Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli), Pravin Pote (Amravati), Suresh Dhas (Osmanabad-Latur-Beed), and Viplove Bajoria (Parbhani-Hingoli) retired in June 2024, while the term of Ambadas Danve (Aurangabad-Jalna) ended in August 2025.

The ECI notification stated that an election for a Local Authorities' Constituency can only be held if at least 75 per cent of the local bodies within that jurisdiction are fully functional and at least 75 per cent of the electors are in position.

The biennial elections to fill these 16 seats of the 78-member legislative council could not be conducted at the time due to non-fulfilment of the criteria, it said.

"Now, the CEO of Maharashtra has informed that these criteria have been fulfilled in respect of all the said constituencies. Therefore, the commission has decided to conduct the biennial election to the Maharashtra legislative council from the above-mentioned 16 Local Authorities' Constituencies, " the notification said.

(With PTI inputs)