MUMBAI: Amid growing speculation over whether Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari would nominate CM Uddhav Thackeray to the state legislative council on the basis of the state cabinet’s recommendations, the governor on Thursday wrote to the Election Commission of India urging it to declare elections to nine vacant council seats at the earliest to end the political uncertainty in the state.Koshyari’s letter to the ECI came after Thackeray sent the governor a letter requesting him to write to the poll commission asking it to hold early elections. The CM’s letter was handed over to Koshyari on Thursday by urban development minister Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena secretary Milind Narvekar.“Since Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is not a member of either house of the state legislature, he needs to get elected to the council before May 27, 2020,” Koshyari said in his letter to the ECI.The governor’s letter also came a day after Thackeray dialled PM Modi over the delay in his appointment to the upper house.According to reports, ECI may declare the elections in a day or two and may even curtail the usual notice period of three weeks for the poll process. The ECI will hold a meeting to discuss the issue on Friday. It is likely to ask political parties to adhere to social distancing norms at the time of the elections. Members of the legislative assembly (288) would be the voters for the nine seats.Elections to the nine seats were originally to take place on April 24, and Thackeray was expected to be voted in then. But the polls were postponed in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and the lockdown.The state cabinet on April 9 recommended to Koshyari that Thackeray be nominated on a vacant seat from the governor’s quota. But the government was told the resolution was not legally valid as deputy CM Ajit Pawar was not authorized to preside over the cabinet meeting where the resolution was passed. So the CM on April 27 authorized Ajit Pawar to preside over a cabinet meeting, following which a fresh proposal was submitted to the governor.In a related development, state Congress president and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, Shiv Sena legislature party leader Eknath Shinde and his NCP counterpart Jayant Patil too wrote separate letters to the ECI asking it to hold elections to the nine seats as early as possible so that there is no political uncertainty in the state.Earlier this week, the governor had told a delegation led by Ajit Pawar that he would secure legal opinion from Attorney General K K Venugopal before taking a final decision on Thackeray’s nomination.If not nominated before May 27, Thackeray would be forced to quit as he has to, according to the rules, become a member of either house of the legislature within six months of taking over as CM. He was sworn in on November 27, 2019.The CM on Wednesday told PM Modi that he was keen to contest the elections, but there was no way he could do so as the elections had been postponed. “Thackeray sought Modi’s intervention and apparently, the PM told the CM he would look into the matter,” a senior NCP minister said.In his letter, Koshyari has stated that the Central government has announced many relaxations regarding the enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, so elections to the council seats can be held with certain guidelines.Meanwhile, a city-based businessman Surinder Arora on Thursday has filed a petition before the Bombay high court seeking directions to the governor to decide on the state cabinet’s recommendation for the CM’s nomination as MLC within three days.The nomination is justified under Article 171 (5) of the Constitution, the petition said. The article provides that members to be nominated on the state legislative council by the governor shall consist of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social service