The Election Commission (EC) has allowed conducting elections to the nine Maharashtra Legislative Council seats. The polls will be held on May 21.
All elections were suspended by the poll watchdog in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, even before the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24. The process to fill nine vacant seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council was also withheld due to the pandemic.
Since Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who took oath on November 28 last year, is not a member of either house of the state legislature, he needs to get elected to the Council before May 27, 2020, failing which he will have to step down.
Earlier on Friday, Thackeray met Governor BS Koshyari at the Mantralaya and discussed it with him.
Maharashtra Governor had on Thursday requested the Election Commission to declare polls for nine vacant seats to the state Legislative Council.
A statement from Raj Bhavan said that Koshyari has requested the ECI to declare elections to the nine vacant seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council ‘at the earliest’.
On Tuesda, a delegation of MVA leaders led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar met the governor and handed over the cabinet decision's copy to him.
Sources have said that the state chief secretary has assured the Commission that all guidelines issued by the Centre to prevent the spread of coronavirus would be followed during elections.