Council polls pushed back, Uddhav Thackeray in a fix

MUMBAI: Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is facing a piquant situation after the postponement of the legislative council election, which he needs to win before May 28 to keep his chair.
In view of the spread of the coronavirus, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday postponed the April-end polls to the nine seats of the upper house to be voted on by members of the legislative assembly.A similar decision was taken for Bihar.
Thackeray, who is not a member of either house of the legislature, was sworn in as chief minister on November 28. The law stipulates that he must become a member of the house within six months.
A bureaucrat said there were still two options before Thackeray. First, governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari could make him a nominated member of the council. Two seats from the governor's quota are vacant following the resignation of Ramrao Wadkule and Rahul Narvekar after they won the assembly polls.
If the governor agrees to such a proposal, Thackeray's tenure will be for two months only, till June. After that, he will have to again be nominated or elected.
The second option is to resign on November 28 and immediately take oath again to continue in the chair for six months more. If Thackeray does so, the entire cabinet will have to take oath anew.