Maharashtra Governor meets CM’s wife, offers condolences on her father’s demise

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s father in-law Madhavrao Patankar died on Monday after a prolonged illness at a suburban hospital.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Tuesday met Rashmi Thackeray, the wife of chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray and conveyed his condolences on the demise of her father Madhavrao Patankar, who died early on Monday morning after prolonged illness at a suburban hospital. Koshyari visited Patankar’s home, which is located at Kalanagar in Bandra (East), near Thackeray’s residence Matoshree.

On June 2, Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari took strong objections over the CM’s decision to scrap the final-year exams for universities this year owing to the coronavirus outbreak. (ANI file photo)

The development comes amid reports of an ongoing tussle between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and the Governor on a series of issues.

On June 2, the Governor took strong objections over the CM’s decision to scrap the final-year exams for universities this year owing to the coronavirus outbreak.

Koshyari said the CM’s announcement on the exams was “unprecedented’ and made “without any profound thinking” on legal repercussions. He also asserted that he is the chancellor of all the universities and the final authority, as far as the affairs of the universities is concerned and so the decision over exams will be taken in consonance with the provisions of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act.

Prior to the issue of university exams, MVA government criticised the Governor for the delay in nominating Uddhav Thackeray as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC), despite a request by the state cabinet to avoid constitutional crisis in Maharashtra. Koshyari also did not appointed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Shivajirao Garje and Aditi Nalawade as members of the state legislative Council despite the two being recommended by CM in December last year. NCP is a part of the MVA alliance.