Maharashtra: Former BJP MLA from Latur Sudhakar Bhalerao joins NCP (SP)

Former BJP MLA Sudhakar Bhalerao on Thursday joined the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party SP reported PTIBhalerao a former MLA from Udgir in Latur went to the BJP office submitted his resignation from the party reported PTI He then joined the NCP SP in a function in YB Chavan Centre in MumbaiParty supremo Sharad Pawar also attended the event along with other NCP SP leaders like Supriya Sule and Jayant PatilBhalerao won from Udgir in the 2009 and 2014 assembly polls However the BJP replaced him with Anil Kamble in the 2019 polls Kamble lost to undivided NCPs Sanjay Bansode who is currently part of the Ajit Pawar faction and state sports ministerBJP fields Pankaja Munde four others for Maharashtra council electionsMaharashtra BJP on Monday announced the candidatures of OBC leader and former minister Pankaja Munde and four others for the upcoming polls to the state legislative council reported news agency PTIThe biennial Maharashtra council elections for 11 seats of the Upper House of the state legislature will be held on July 12The party in a release named Munde former MLA Yogesh Tilekar Parinay Phuke Amit Gorkhe and Sadabhau Khot as its candidates reported PTIMunde the partys national general secretary lost the state assembly polls in 2019 and the recently held Lok Sabha elections from Beed against NCP SPs Bajrang SonawaneAmong other candidates Tilekar hails from Pune Khot is from Sangli and Gorkhe is a BJP functionary from Pimpri Chinchwad and belongs to the Matang community one of the backward classes in the state reported PTIPhuke is from Nagpur and known to be close to BJP leader and deputy chief minister Devendra FadnavisThe sixyear term in office of 11 MLCs elected by the Members of Legislative Assembly MLAs is due to end on July 27 on their retirement reported PTIThe biennial Maharashtra council elections to the upper house of the state legislature is being held just months ahead of assembly polls which are due in October reported PTIWith 14 vacancies in the 288member house the electoral college is 274 and the quota for the winning candidate is 23The Ajit Pawarled NCP has 41 MLAs the Eknath Shindeled Sena has 40 and the BJP has 103 The Congress has 37 Shiv Sena UBT has 13 and NCP SP has 15Meanwhile Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said the state government will request the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna the countrys highest civilian honour on former CM late Vasantrao Naik reported PTIOpposition Congress member Nana Patole raised the demand in the state assemblyToday is Naiks 111th birth anniversary The Congress leader had served as the state chief minister from 1963 to 1975The state government observes his birth anniversary as Krishi Din agriculture dayFadnavis said there has been a demand to confer Bharat Ratna on former CM Naik reported PTIWe will pursue the matter with the Centre to honour him with the Bharat Ratna the deputy CM said reported PTI