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Voting in Maharashtra council election underway

Polling for the biennial elections to the 11 seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council began on Monday morning at the Vidhan Bhavan in Bombay.

The 289-member state legislative assembly will elect 11 elders out of a total of 14 in the fray.

The election has assumed significance in the backdrop of the launch of prosecution against Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray under section 153(A) of the Indian Penal Code, for his alleged inflammatory writings in his daily Saamna during the communal riots of 1992-93.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Govind Adik and his deputy Ulhas Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party vice-president Vinayak Mete and former Bombay police commissioner Ramdeo Tyagi are prominent among the candidates in the fray seeking a berth in the 78-member House.

Nine members of the Upper House are due for retirement on July 27 and two of its members, Minister of State for Home Kripashankar Singh and Pandurang Hazare of the Bharatiya Janata Party had resigned from the council earlier.

Other candidates are: Kanta Nalawade and Shantaram Sarmalkar (both BJP), Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, Vilas Awchat and Deepak Sawant (all Sena), Khatib Sayyad Natikkodin (Congress), Jayant Patil (Peasants and Workers' Party), Mahesh Gaikwad (Bahujan Mahasangh), Dayanand Mhaske (RPI-Athawale) and Vishwas Nerurkar (supported by Sena-BJP).

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