<p>In what comes as a sigh of relief, Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray was elected unopposed to the state's legislature on Thursday. </p>.<p>The election of Uddhav to the Maharashtra Legislative Council lends stability to the Sena-NCP-Congress ruling alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi.</p>.<p>The 59-year-old Uddhav is the second from the Thackeray family to enter Maharashtra legislature - the other being his son Aditya, who won the Assembly elections form Worli and is now state's protocol, environment and tourism minister.</p>.<p>Besides Thackeray, eight others who were elected are Dr Neelam Gorhe (Sena), Rajesh Rathod (Congress), Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari (NCP) and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Praveen Datke, Gopichand Padalkar and Ramesh Karad.</p>.<p>Thursday was the last date of withdrawal of nomination - and since no additional candidate was there, all nine candidates whose applications were found okay, were declared elected unopposed.</p>.<p>Uddhav was sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister on 28 November, 2019, and then, he was neither an MLA or an MLC - and needed to get elected within six months' time.</p>.<p>The Shiv Sena was planned for the April elections to Council but in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, all polls were postponed by Election Commission.</p>.<p>The MVA government resolved to propose the name of Uddhav for the post of two vacant seats form governor's quota to the Council. </p>.<p>There was a technical issue for Koshyari to take a call as the Representation of People Act, 1951, states that election or nomination to a vacant post cannot be done if the remainder term of the vacancy is less than one year. </p>.<p>The term of the two vacant seats in this case was to end on 6 June.</p>.<p>In the crisis situation, Uddhav spoke to prime minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue.</p>.<p>Thereafter, the Shiv Sena cited the emergency situation and requested governor to in impress upon ECI to conduct polls, that the latter agreed.</p>.<p>The poll schedule was announced - thereafter the MVA and opposition BJP ensured that it was unopposed.</p>.<p>The 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was the electoral college for the nine seats.</p>
<p>In what comes as a sigh of relief, Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray was elected unopposed to the state's legislature on Thursday. </p>.<p>The election of Uddhav to the Maharashtra Legislative Council lends stability to the Sena-NCP-Congress ruling alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi.</p>.<p>The 59-year-old Uddhav is the second from the Thackeray family to enter Maharashtra legislature - the other being his son Aditya, who won the Assembly elections form Worli and is now state's protocol, environment and tourism minister.</p>.<p>Besides Thackeray, eight others who were elected are Dr Neelam Gorhe (Sena), Rajesh Rathod (Congress), Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari (NCP) and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Praveen Datke, Gopichand Padalkar and Ramesh Karad.</p>.<p>Thursday was the last date of withdrawal of nomination - and since no additional candidate was there, all nine candidates whose applications were found okay, were declared elected unopposed.</p>.<p>Uddhav was sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister on 28 November, 2019, and then, he was neither an MLA or an MLC - and needed to get elected within six months' time.</p>.<p>The Shiv Sena was planned for the April elections to Council but in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, all polls were postponed by Election Commission.</p>.<p>The MVA government resolved to propose the name of Uddhav for the post of two vacant seats form governor's quota to the Council. </p>.<p>There was a technical issue for Koshyari to take a call as the Representation of People Act, 1951, states that election or nomination to a vacant post cannot be done if the remainder term of the vacancy is less than one year. </p>.<p>The term of the two vacant seats in this case was to end on 6 June.</p>.<p>In the crisis situation, Uddhav spoke to prime minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue.</p>.<p>Thereafter, the Shiv Sena cited the emergency situation and requested governor to in impress upon ECI to conduct polls, that the latter agreed.</p>.<p>The poll schedule was announced - thereafter the MVA and opposition BJP ensured that it was unopposed.</p>.<p>The 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was the electoral college for the nine seats.</p>
