The rejection means that their party’s two candidates need more votes from the independents and smaller parties. The duo’s plea for voting in the Rajya Sabha polls was also rejected by the lower courts last week
As of now, Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh can’t vote in the June 20 Council polls
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will be short of two votes in the Legislative Council (MLC) elections on June 20 because the Bombay High Court has refused to release its two MLAs, Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, from judicial custody for polling. The rejection means that their party’s two candidates need more votes from the independents and smaller parties. The duo’s plea for voting in the Rajya Sabha polls was also rejected by the lower courts last week.
In the Rajya Sabha elections, the NCP had fielded Praful Patel, who won comfortably by getting more first preference votes (43) than the quota needed. NCP had 51 MLAs then without Malik and Deshmukh. The extra votes were transferred to the MVA allies. NCP will again have a similar number, but the arithmetic in the MLC polls is different because each candidate needs 26 votes to win. The party will have to have more votes than its official members polling.
To safeguard its candidates, the NCP will also need to ensure that the votes they poll exceed the quota required to win. The upper house chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar and former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Eknath Khadse are the NCP nominees. Considering the animosity between Khadse and the BJP, the sceptical political circles haven’t predicted an easy win for the former minister in a secret ballot for all voters.
