Uddhav Thackeray takes oath as member of Maharashtra Legislative Council

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took his oath, along with eight others, as the newly elected members of the state Legislative Council today at 1 PM. Thackeray was one among the nine candidates belonging to the ruling and opposition parties who were declared elected unopposed to the Council last week.

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray takes oath as Member of Legislative Council. pic.twitter.com/lXOuTHCT7s

— ANI (@ANI) May 18, 2020

The biennial elections for the nine seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, which fell vacant on April 24, were scheduled to be held on Thursday. As many as 14 candidates had filed their nomination papers for the nine seats but one candidate's nomination was rejected during the scrutiny of papers and four - BJP's Ajit Gopchade and Sandeep Lele, NCP's Kiran Pawaskar and Shivajirao Garje - withdrew the nomination on May 12. 

They have been declared elected unopposed on May 14 after the deadline for withdrawal of papers ended at 3 pm, an official said.

The nine new members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council are -- Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray and Neelam Gorhe, NCP's Shashikant Shinde, Amol Mitkari, Congress's Rajesh Rathod and BJP's Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke, and Ramesh Karad.

Governor BS Koshyari had recently written to the Election Commission of India (ECI), requesting it to hold the polls as Thackeray's six-month term was nearing its end and he was not a member of any house. 

Thackeray was sworn in as chief minister on November 28, 2019, and as per the constitutional provision, he had to become a member of either house of state legislature within six months of taking the office.