Mumbai, 18 March (HS):- The election of five candidates

to the Legislative Council on Tuesday was declared unopposed. The nomination

forms of five out of six candidates for the by-polls to the Legislative Council

were accepted. The sixth nomination was termed invalid.

March 17 was the last date for filing the nomination

papers. Six candidates had filed the papers for the five seats, which fell

vacant as the MLCs were elected to the Legislative Assembly. Following scrutiny

of the nomination form one was rejected paving the way for the unopposed election

of the remaining five.

Those elected are Sandip Joshi, Dadarao Keche,

Sanjay Kenekar, Chandrakant Raghuwanshi, and Sanjay Khodke.

Joshi, Keche, and Kenekar are the BJP candidates,

Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) fielded Raghuvanshi, and NCP (Ajit Pawar) nominated

Khodke, Sanjay Khodke is the husband of MLA Sulabha Khodke and is close to Ajit

Pawar.

The polling was scheduled for March 27.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Ajay Vasant Mardikar