The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the schedule for elections to 17 seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Voting will take place on June 18, with the counting of votes set for June 22. This announcement follows the resolution of a deadlock concerning the 75 per cent local body threshold requirement.
The formal gazette notification for the elections is expected to be issued on May 25. Candidates will have until June 1 to file their nomination papers, with scrutiny scheduled for June 2. Those wishing to withdraw their candidacies must do so by June 4.
Among the seats up for election is a bypoll for the Nagpur local authorities’ constituency, which became vacant after Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule resigned following his election to the Legislative Assembly in 2024. The member elected from this by-election will serve the remainder of the current term, which concludes on January 1, 2028. The members elected for the other 16 seats will serve a full six-year tenure.
The terms for the members of the 16 biennial seats had expired between 2022 and 2025. Elections for these seats were delayed as the necessary criteria regarding the functionality of local bodies and the availability of electors had not been met in the respective constituencies. The ECI’s guidelines stipulate that elections can only proceed when at least 75% of local bodies in a constituency are functional and at least 75% of the electorate is available.
The constituencies going to polls for the biennial elections include Solapur, Ahmednagar, Thane, Jalgaon, Sangli cum Satara, Nanded, Yavatmal, Pune, Bhandara cum Gondia, Raigad cum Ratnagiri cum Sindhudurg, Nashik, Wardha cum Chandrapur cum Gadchiroli, Amravati, Osmanabad cum Latur cum Beed, Parbhani cum Hingoli, and Aurangabad cum Jalna.
With the announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into immediate effect in the concerned constituencies.
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The Chenab Times News Desk
