Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has replied to Governor BS Koshyari's letter asking him to take a call on the demand by the Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, to extend the duration of the session duration.
In his reply to Governor, CM has discussed issues raised by Fadnavis related to the monsoon session duration, speaker's election and local body election.
CM has stated that the decision regarding the assembly session was taken by the Business Advisory Committees of the legislative assembly and council considering the ongoing second COVID-19 wave and the threat of the third wave.
Regarding the election of the speaker, CM said the election could not be conducted due to the shorter session in teh state. It has not violated any constitutional provision, CM added.
Ahead of the monsoon session of the legislature slated for July 5 and 6, Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, asking him to take a call on the demand by the Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, to extend the duration of the session duration.
Further, said the governor’s letter, a BJP-delegation led by Devendra Fadnavis had visited Raj Bhavan on June 23 and submitted two memorandums. Apart from the demand for extending the monsoon session, there were demands for holding the election for the Assembly Speaker and the postponement of local body elections since the OBC reservation issue was still pending. The rural development department has already approached the Supreme Court with a plea to postpone local body elections by at least six months due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Fadnavis-led delegation had strongly criticised the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for just a two-day monsoon session, as against their demand for at least 15 days. The delegation had claimed that the MVA government was trying to “run away” from issues concerning the common people and also from the democratic process.
The governor said all three issues were important to the state and asked the CM to apprise him of the action taken in this regard.
The CM had visited the Raj Bhavan on June 17, to wish the governor on his birthday. The gubernatorial missive comes even as the Maha Vikas Aghadi government has been criticising criticised the governor for sitting on the file pertaining to the nomination of 12 members to the Maharashtra Legislative Council for eight months now.
Earlier, there was a rift between Thackeray and Koshyari after the latter's letter on the reopening of temples in the state.
