The election of a new Chairperson for the Maharashtra Legislative Council will be held on December 19, Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe announced on Tuesday. Gorhe informed the members that the post was vacant since July 7, 2022, after the term of Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar ended. She said that finally the House would see a successor on Thursday. Among 78 members in the upper house of the State Legislature, the BJP has 19 members, Congress 7, Shiv Sena (UBT) 7, Shiv Sena 6, NCP (SP) and NCP 5 each, and Independent 3. Recently, Governor C P Radhakrishnan approved the nomination of seven new MLCs, filling some of the vacant seats.

 

After the announcement of the election, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Anil Parab raised a query in the Upper House regarding the criteria of nomination of new Chairperson. “As per the rule the Chairperson of the Council has to be a member of the Upper House. What about members whose disqualification petition is pending in the Supreme Court of India and are they eligible for the nomination?” asked Parab in the House. Whereas, Neelam Gorhe, Deputy Chairperson of the Legislative Council assured that the rules and criteria about the procedure would be shared till December 18 in the House.