Mumbai: All schools and junior colleges in the city and suburbs to remain closed on Monday on account of the biennial State Council polls of the Mumbai teachers’ constituency.
Teachers residing in Mumbai (city and suburbs) will elect their representative to a seat held by Lok Bharati’s Kapil Patil for the last two terms.
Mr. Patil, who has now merged his party with Bihar’s former JDU leader Sharad Yadav, has received support from all opposition parties, and will be taking on Anil Deshmukh of the BJP and Shivaji Shendge of the Shiv Sena.
On Monday, apart from the Mumbai teachers’ constituency, election to three other seats, Mumbai graduate constituency, Konkan graduate constituency, and Nashik teachers’ constituency, will be held.
Graduates who have registered themselves as voters for these polls have also been given holiday as per the government rules. In Mumbai, the education department has issued directions to keep all schools and junior colleges closed to allow teachers to vote.
The elections will also feature yet another battle between the ruling alliance of BJP and Sena, after the Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll.
Both the parties have fielded candidates in all four constituencies, and claim to win three prestigious seats from Mumbai and Konkan.
Victory would help the BJP consolidate its power in the Council, where it is not the single largest party. The Sena, on the other hand, wants to ensure that the BJP does not undermine its power.
The united opposition of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), along with other smaller parties such as the Peasants and Workers Party have extended support to a single candidate on each seat.
Meanwhile, 11 Council members will be retiring in July, and the elections to those seats will be held on July 16. As the new MLCs will be elected from the MLAs, the existing calculation gives only two seats to the Congress and one to the NCP, while the rest will go to the BJP and the Sena. Following the July 16 election, the BJP will be the single largest party in the Council.