Mumbai: After waiting almost ten days for the gubernatorial decision on the nomination of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to legislative council, the Shiv Sena has now picked up the pen, targeting Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in no unncertain terms, slamming him for behaving like Ram Lal, the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh governor, who had toppled N T Rama Rao government.
The Sena's anger over the delay in Governor Bhagat Singh's nod to a state cabinet recommendation nominating CM Thackeray as a member of the legislative council from the governor's quota coldly bubbled over on Sunday, with MP Sanjay Raut launching a veiled attack on Koshyari, who is also a former BJP leader. "Raj Bhavan, the governor's house, should not become a centre for political conspiracy.
Remember! History does not spare those who behave unconstitutionally. I do not know why, but suddenly, the name of the shameless Governor Ram Lal comes to mind. A word to the wise is sufficient," Raut tweeted in Marathi. With these words, Raut has indirectly attacked the governor for hatching a political conspiracy against the Thackeray government.
This is also a harbinger of a more aggressive Sena in the coming days. In December, when two names were recommended by the state government for nomination to the legislative council from the governor's quota, Koshyari had rejected the recommendations, saying the new appointees would serve for less than six months, as the term of these two vacant seats were scheduled to end on June 6. Thackeray is not a member of either of the two Houses of the state legislature.
According to the Constitution, a minister or a chief minister who is not a member of either of the Houses, must be elected House within six months of being sworn into the post, failing which they must resign.
Thackeray was sworn in as chief minister of Maharashtra on November 28, 2019, and will complete six months in office on May 28, 2020. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had recently held a cabinet meeting on April 9, which had suggested Thackeray’s name for MLC, from the governor's quota. Thakur Ram Lal was former the CM of Himachal Pradesh and Koshyari was former CM of Uttarakhand.
Ram Lal, who served as Governor of Andhra Pradesh from August 15, 1983, to August 29, 1984, had courted controversy after he appointed that state's finance minister, N Bhaskar Rao as Chief Minister, while the incumbent CM, N T Rama Rao, was away in the US for surgery. This change was supposedly done at the behest of then Congress leadership, despite Bhaskar Rao not having the support of more than 20 per cent of the MLAs of the Telugu Desam Party.
NTR returned to the state after a week and launched a massive campaign against Ram Lal. A month later, the then President Zail Singh dismissed Governor Ram Lal, replacing him with Shankar Dayal Sharma. Three days later, NTR was back in the saddle as the Andhra CM.
