Tussle between Governor Koshyari and Maharashtra govt yet to end?

A meeting between a delegation of MVA leaders and the governor could not be held on Thursday as the latter refused to give an appointment

The tussle between Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra VIkas Aghadi (MVA) government is yet to end. A meeting between a delegation of MVA leaders, led by the chief minister (CM) and the governor could not be held on Thursday as the latter refused to give an appointment to MVA leaders, state Congress chief Nana Patole has alleged.

Raj Bhavan officials clarified that the government communicated only after 4pm, as a result of which the governor said a meeting would not be possible on Thursday due to his prior appointments. (HT File)

“The meeting could not be held as the governor didn’t give an appointment,” Patole told reporters.

Thackeray, along with deputy CM and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and revenue minister from the Congress Balsaheb Thorat, wanted to meet Koshyari to discuss the issue over not clearing the 12 names for the legislative Council. The list of names, approved by the state cabinet, is pending with the governor for the past nine months.

“The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will face a major rift if the 12 MLCs (Members of legislative Council) are appointed. The fear within the BJP has delayed the appointment for the vacant seats of the legislative Council,” Patole alleged.

However, officials from Raj Bhavan clarified that the government communicated over the meeting only after 4pm, as a result of which the governor said a meeting would not be possible on Thursday due to his prior appointments. The meeting is likely to be held on or after September 1 as Koshyari will be visiting Delhi on Friday to attend the launch of his biography the next day and will come back to Mumbai only next month.

The book, ‘Bhartiya Sansad Mein Bhagat Singh Koshyari’, will be launched by defence minister Rajnath Singh. According to the Raj Bhavan officials, Koshyari will visit Dehradun after the book launch.

Late on Thursday evening, Thackeray’s close aide and Shiv Sena secretary Milind Narvekar visited Raj Bhavan to meet the governor. Koshyari is believed to have informed Narvekar about his schedule for the next five days.

Narvekar didn’t respond to calls and text messages.

Most of the seats in the Council have been vacant since last June. The state had approved the names of 12 MLCs in November 2020 to be nominated by the governor for six-year tenure. The appointments are made by the governor based on the state cabinet’s recommendation.

The list submitted to the governor included the names of Vijay Karanjkar, Urmila Matondkar, Nitin Bangude-Patil and Chandrakant Raghuvanshi from the Shiv Sena; Eknath Khadse, Raju Shetti, Yashpal Bhinge and Anand Shinde from NCP; and Rajni Patil, Sachin Sawant, Anniruddha Vankar and Muzaffar Hussain from the Congress.

The inaction by the governor was challenged before the Bombay high court (HC).

On August 13, HC had said that the governor is constitutionally obligated to either accept or reject the names within a reasonable time.