With senior BJP leaders EknathKhadse and Pankaja Munde not being given candidature for the May 21 Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, state party chief Chandrakant Patil on Friday said they are "good workers" and mature enough to understand.He said the party's central leadership must have thought about the future while selecting the candidates.Former NCP MP Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ajit Gopchhade have been fielded by the BJP for the Council polls.Khadse, a former state minister, had recently said that he was keen to represent his party in the Legislative Council, nine seats of which fell vacant on April 24.He was denied a ticket from Muktainagar seat in the October Assembly polls last year, and his daughter who was fielded instead lost.Pankaja Munde had lost the Parli seat to her cousin and NCP rival Dhananjay Munde in the last assembly polls.The four BJP candidates filed their nomination papers at the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai on Friday.Talking to reporters after the filing of nonimations, Chandrakant Patil said his party had the numbers to get all the four candidates elected.Replying to a question on why Khadse and Munde were ignored, Patil said the central leadership must thought about the future while selecting the candidates."When the names are recommended to the central leadership, their background is also told," he said."Khadse, Pankaja, Chandrashekar Banwankule are all good workers. They are mature enough...they will understand ," he said.The last date of filing of nomination papers is May 11. While the scrutiny of nominations will be done on May 12, the last date for withdrawal of papers is May 14.The election assumes importance as Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is among the candidates. However, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has not yet finalised its nominees.
