Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray-led delegation raised with prime minister Narendra Modi the delay in clearing the nominations of 12 members to the Maharashtra legislative council by governor B S Koshyari. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that the CM urged Modi to impress upon the governor to expedite the nomination of the 12 members to the upper house, citing that the state government had submitted the list to Raj Bhavan in November, last year.
Pawar said that the Bombay high court had recently directed the governor’s secretary to file an affidavit in this regard.
The delay in the clearance of the file by Raj Bhavan has widened the rift between the governor and the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have repeatedly targeted the governor for sitting on the file.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut recently took a dig at the Governor after the RTI activist Anil Galgali revealed that there was no file pertaining to the list of 12 members to be nominated in the state council. He wondered what research was being done on the file that was sent by the state government to the governor in November last year recommending 12 names for nomination.
Raut hoped that the Governor would take serious cognisance of the Bombay High Court's observations on the delay in the nomination of 12 members to the Legislative Council under the governor's quota.
“Is anybody doing a PhD on it?” he asked. An editorial in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said six months have passed since the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state cleared the 12 names.
"It is better if the governor takes the court's observations seriously. Nobody should test Maharashtra's patience. The state has the culture of respecting its elders. If you are progressive and have patience, it doesn't mean you are a coward," it said.
The editorial alleged that there was "politics" behind the delay in nomination of the 12 members to the Legislative Council.
The delay in making the appointments "at the behest of higher-ups is an insult of the state, the Legislature and violation of the Constitution," it claimed.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said it is quite unusual to raise the issue of nomination of 12 names to the upper house. “The issue is in the Governor’s purview and not in the jurisdiction of the Centre or the state government,’’ he noted.
