With just a day to go for the biennial Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan is confident that the three candidates nominated by his party would win. There are 11 candidates in fray for 10 vacant seats, giving indications that the elections will be fought very hard.
"The Congress and (alliance partner) Nationalist Congress Party have completed necessary preparations for the victory of all seven nominees. As far as the Congress is concerned, the party has the support of independents and we do not see any problem for our three nominees," Chavan said.
The Congress, which has 82 members in the Assembly, is also supporting an independent candidate, while the NCP has fielded three candidates against its strength of 62 seats.
On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has 46 members, has fielded two candidates, the same nominated by its opposition partner, the Shiv Sena.
A senior Congress leader, on condition of anonymity, admitted that Chavan had decided to give due importance to the council elections. "The chief minister is talking individually to the party legislators as well as independent supporters of the Congress. Besides, Chavan was instrumental in arriving at an understanding with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Four suspended MNS members will be allowed to vote and their suspension is expected to be revoked in the monsoon session," he said.
More importantly, Chavan does not want the repeat of 2008 episode when the party candidate and the close confidant of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was defeated in the council elections. The Congress leader informed that Chavan has been quite liberal in clearing various works in the constituencies of party legislators and also of independents. "If anything goes wrong, the anti-Chavan camp will mount pressure on the party high command for his removal," he added.