File photo.
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission is likely to allow polls to be held to 9 legislative council seats in Maharashtra at the earliest, giving chief minister Uddhav Thackeray an opportunity to become an MLC within the six-month deadline for being elected to either Vidhan Sabha or Vidhan Parishad.
The EC, sources said, will take a call on the likely poll schedule at a meeting on Friday morning. CEC Sunil Arora, who is currently in the US, will join the meeting with the other two election commissioners via video-conferencing. A minimum 21-day period between announcement and polling is needed, and a schedule may be announced immediately so that polls are completed well before May 27.
Sources said EC has, as a matter of consistent policy, always provided an opportunity to the person appointed as minister, who is not a member of the appropriate legislature at the time of his appointment, to fulfil the constitutional requirement and at the same time allow the electorate to give its verdict in relation to his appointm