Mumbai, July 23: The Election Commission today issued notification for holding elections to three vacant Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
The vacancies have arised following the resignation of Sushilkumar Shinde (Congress), Praful Patel and Supriya Sule (NCP) after they were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent General elections.
The 288 member Legislative Assembly is the electoral college for the elections. At present, the total strength of the Assembly is 278, Assistant Returning Officer S S Mayekar said here.
He said notification for all the three seats has been issued separately by the Election Commission. Each candidate requires 140 first preference votes to get elected.
Union Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is not member of either house of Parliament, is the front runner from the Congress side while Govindrao Adik’s name is doing rounds in the NCP camp.
–PTI