Parties yet to announce nominees for lone Nagpur Council seat

Nagpur There is still no clear picture on nomination of candidates for the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls from local bodies constituency of Nagpur district although last date of filing papers is December 9Also the voters list for the election to this lone Council seat from Nagpur district is yet to be finalised leaving aspiring candidates flummoxed as they have no clue about the final electorate which will seal their fatePolling for elections to the eight seats of the Legislative Council from the selfgovernment bodies in Maharashtra would be held on December 27The biennial poll is for the local selfgovernment bodies constituency in which essentially elected members of localbodies comprising Nagpur Municipal Corporation Zilla Parishad Municipal Councils are empowered to choose a legislatorIn the last election for the seat held six years ago the number of voters were 422 But this time it is proposed that newly elected Nagar Panchayat members too village council may be included With this the number would up to 581 official sources saidThere are five such newly created Nagar Panchayats each with 17 elected members So 85 new voters straightaway get added to the voter listAnother addition is that of 29 coopted members of these local selfgovernment bodies and 13 Sabhapatis of Gram Panchayats besides new additions in municipal councils like Saoner Katol Umred Narkher Kamptee Kanhan among othersWith the recent success in Nagar Panchayats in a number of places the CongressNCP combine has an upper hand as compared to the BJPShiv SenaMeanwhile some objections have been raised against the inclusion of Nagar Panchayat members and a final decision on it will be taken by the Returning Officer in a couple of days sources close to the RO saidSitting Legislative Council member Rajendra Mulak Nagpur whose term ends next month is the front runner for the Congress candidature from this seatIn 2009 Mulak won by a slim margin of four votes against BJPs Ashok Mankar He later became the MoS for Finance in the Prithiviraj Chavan governmentThe BJP candidate will be decided by Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis and Union Minister Nitin GadkariBoth the leaders had a late night meeting recently and are understood to have finalised on the candidate but it has been kept under wraps party sources saidCity Mayor Pravin Datke along with Ashok Mankar Ramesh Mankar and Girish Vyas are keen contenders for the BJP candidature sources addedThe term of following Legislative Council members ends on January 1 2016 Amrish Patel DhuleNandurbar Mahadev Mahadik Kolhapur Rajendra Mulak Nagpur and Bhai Jagtap Mumbai all from the CongressTwo Shiv Sena members state Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam Mumbai and Gopikishan Bajoria Akola Washim Buldhana will also retire on the same dayNCPs Deepak Salunke Solapur and NCP backed Independent Arun Jagtap Ahmednagar also retires on January 1 The last date for filing nominations is December 9Scrutiny will take place on December 10 and last date of withdrawal is December 12 The counting of votes will be takenup on December 30