Narvekar quits MLC race, may join NCP

MUMBAI: In an embarrassing development for the Shiv Sena, its candidate Rahul Narvekar withdrew from the legislative council election on Thursday. There is a possibility he may join the NCP, leaders from the party said.

The withdrawal of the Sena candidate resulted in unopposed election of nine candidates of four main parties.

Sena was fighting on weak grounds, and was 12 votes short for its second candidate. Almost all the parties were of the opinion of not holding elections as it would have led to horse trading ahead of the

Lok Sabha polls. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said on Monday that his endeavour would be to elect the candidates unopposed.

What could be more awkward for the Sena is the possibility of Narvekar joining the NCP. According to NCP leaders, Narvekar was in touch with them during the last two days. They claimed he was upset with his party leadership and the NCP may consider his induction.

This is the second time Narvekar has withdrawn from the fray, the first being in 2009 when he had filed nomination for Rajya Sabha. He fought the MLC election in 2011 and lost to Kiran Pawaskar of the NCP.

The minimum votes to get an MLC elected was 29. With 46 MLAS in the assembly, who choose the MLCS, the Sena had to get 12 more votes. The BJP, too, had fielded two candidates against their vote strength of 47. It had managed 11 votes of MNS MLAS and four of the Workers and Peasants Party. Congress and the NCP, which had fielded three candidates each, had reportedly secured their required vote share.

The candidates elected are Ganpatrao Deshmukh, Chandrakant Raghuvanshi and Haribhau Rathod (Congress), Kiran Pawaskar, Hemant Takale and Anand Thakur (NCP), Pandurang Phundkar and Vinod Tawde (BJP) and Neelam Gorhe of Shiv Sena.