Congress Fields Late Leader Rajeev Satav's Wife In Maharashtra Legislative Bypolls

Congress on Monday named Dr Prajnya Rajeev Satav, wife of the late party leader Rajeev Satav, as its candidate for Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) bypolls.

"The Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of Dr Prajnya Rajiv Satav as Congress candidate to contest the by-election to the Legislative Council of Maharashtra to be elected by the MLAs," the All India Congress Committee (AICC) said in a statement.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on November 11 announced the schedule for the biennial election to the Maharashtra Legislative Council from five local authorities for six seats due to the retirement of sitting members on January 1, 2022.

The election will be held on December 10 and the result will be declared on December 14.The term of the eight sitting MLCs is set to expire on January 2022.

However, with regard to local authorities' constituencies election, the Election Commission of India has laid down the guidelines that if at least 75 per cent of the local authorities in the constituency are functioning and in addition at least 75 per cent of the electors out of the total electorate are available, then electorate is treated as available for electing MLC.

Based on this, only five out of seven local authorities fulfil the criteria leading to the election on only six seats, instead of eight.

The seven local consistency include Mumbai, Kolhapur, Dhule-cum-Nandurbar, Akola-cum-Buldhana-cum-Washim, Nagpur, Solapur and Ahmednagar.

As per the ECI, elections will not be held in Solapur and Ahmednagar.