Maharashtra: Congressman withdraws, paves way for Shiv Sena, BJP win

Suresh Koparkar (third from left) filed his papers on Tuesday. File pic

Congress leader Suresh Koparkar, who was confident of upsetting BJP candidate Rajhans Singh, has on Thursday withdrawn from the contest for the two vacancies of the state Legislative Council. Singh will now be elected unopposed along with Shiv Sena's Sunil Shinde, as there are no other contestants in the fray for the December 10 polls.

Koparkar, a former corporator and Congress's candidate in the 2019 Assembly polls, had filed his nomination as an independent. He had claimed the support of the Congress and other corporators, and surplus votes of the Sena. He had told mid-day that he would see the Congress's official support in his bid to topple the BJP's candidate. Sources said Koparkar was advised to withdraw. Both Sena and BJP had more than enough numbers in the house of 227 elected members and five nominated ones.