Nagpur: Backroom negotiations for the legislative council seats have begun in BJP. Based on its current strength in the assembly, it is positioned to secure up to five of the nine seats. There is a surge in the number of aspirants, mostly those who missed out on RS nominations. The party has to decide if it will renominate four of its sitting members whose terms end on May 13—the CM’s close aide and former Nagpur mayor Sandip Joshi, Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Dadarao Keche and Sanjay Kenekar—or introduce new faces, a choice that could influence internal equations. —Vaibhav Ganjapure
