Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was among nine candidates belonging to the ruling and opposition parties who were declared elected unopposed to the state Legislative Council on Thursday. The biennial elections for the nine seats of the Council, which fell vacant on April 24, were scheduled to be held next 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 were declared elected unopposed on Thursday 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. The election process was initiated on May 4 to fill in vacancies for nine seats, which fell vacant after the completion of the term of nine members. The election process was initially postponed in view of the coronavirus pandemic. 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 constitutional provision, he had to become a member of either house of state legislature within six months of taking the office.

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