Congress names three candidates for Legislative Council polls, Wanjari again from Nagpur

Biennial elections are due to five seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and political activity has picked up. Congress has officially announced its candidates for three of the graduates' and teachers' constituencies. The party has placed its trust again in two outgoing members of the Legislative Council (MLCs), while giving a new face a chance on one seat.

According to an official statement issued by Congress, the party has renominated outgoing MLC Abhijit Wanjari from the Nagpur division graduates' constituency. Outgoing MLC Jayant Dinkar Asgaonkar has been given the ticket again from the Pune division teachers' constituency. In the Amravati teachers' constituency, the party has made a change and named a new face, Aditi Pohare, as its candidate.

Earlier this week, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the alliance of Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), announced that it would contest the biennial elections together. The decision was taken at a meeting attended by senior Congress leader Naseem Khan, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leaders Shashikant Shinde and Harshvardhan Patil, and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut.

Naseem Khan had said the alliance held talks over the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) graduates' seat, the Pune graduates' seat held by the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), and the Amravati teachers' seat held by an independent.

The election process has begun for the five seats in all, of which three are graduates' and two are teachers' constituencies. The last date for filing nominations is October 6 and the last date for withdrawal is October 9. Voting will be held on October 23 and counting on October 27.

The terms of NCP's Satish Chavan from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates' seat, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar)'s Arun Lad from the Pune graduates' seat and independent Kiran Sarnaik from the Amravati teachers' seat end on December 6. With the Congress candidates settled, election activity has risen sharply in Nagpur, Pune and Amravati.