india

Updated: Apr 30, 2020 16:41 IST

As the window of time closes in on chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to enter the state legislature, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi leaders and the Shiv Sena are examining all options to get him nominated to the upper house of the state legislature.

Sena leaders said that they are also exploring their legal options and will be writing to the Election Commission.

Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has remained non-committal on processing the recommendation of the state cabinet. The CM then reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening to resolve the crisis. Sena insiders said that they would wait for a couple of days to see if “the message from Delhi reached Raj Bhavan”.

Thackeray’s fate as chief minister hangs in balance as he has to get elected to one of the two houses of the state legislature by May 27. As per constitutional provisions, a minister or chief minister has to get elected to the state legislature within six months of taking oath.

Thackeray, who was sworn in as the CM on November 28, will have to resign if he fails to get nominated to the upper house in the state assembly..

The elections on the nine seats of the legislative council were deferred due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“Uddhav ji has spoken to PM Modi. Let us wait for a couple of days if the message reaches Raj Bhavan. Meanwhile, we are working on our options. We would write to the Election Commission requesting it to hold the legislative council polls. Another option is to approach the Supreme Court seeking it to direct EC to hold the polls,” a Sena leader said requesting anonymity.

The Sena is hopeful that the governor would process the nomination soon and it would not come to the MVA’s last option of Thackeray resigning. “It would not come to that (Thackeray’s resignation as CM),” the leader said. If Thackeray resigns, he would be re-elected as the leader of the MVA coalition and form the government again amid the ongoing battle against the coronavirus outbreak in Maharashtra.

During the phone conversation between Thackeray and Modi, the former expressed unhappiness over the “politics being played” over his nomination to the legislative council. “Uddhav ji discussed the current political uncertainty in the state with the PM. He expressed unhappiness over the politics being played over his nomination as MLC at a time when the state is combating the coronavirus outbreak in the state,” a senior Sena leader told HT.