Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray took oath as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) on Monday afternoon. This is the first time a Sena chief has become a member of the state legislature and the second from the Thackeray clan after his son Aaditya Thackeray.
Thackeray was one among the nine candidates belonging to the ruling coalition of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an alliance comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party who were declared elected unopposed to the council last week.
The other eight new members of the council are Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe, NCP’s Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari, Congress’s Rajesh Rathod and BJP’s Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke and Ramesh Karad.
The CM was accompanied by his wife Rashmi and son Aaditya at the oath ceremony held in the Central Hall of the state legislature.
Thackeray’s election to the House was crucial for him to continue as the CM, as he had to fulfil the constitutional requirement of becoming a member of either of the Houses before May 27– six months from the day he took oath as the chief minister.
Shiv Sena MP and party secretary Vinayak Raut said, “All Shiv Sainiks are proud that their leader is taking oath as a legislator today. The state has got good leadership.”
Fourteen candidates were in the fray for the elections to the council, but subsequently four candidates — two each from the BJP and NCP — withdrew their nominations and an independent candidate’s nomination was rejected in scrutiny.
With the election on the nine seats of the upper house pushed back because of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), political uncertainty loomed over the state on how to get Thackeray elected to the council.
