Maharashtra CM Uddhav meets Governor, requests him to approve names of 12 nominated members

Thackeray was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte. The meeting lasted for an hour, sources said.

Ten months after the Maharashtra Cabinet nominated 12 people to be appointed as members of the Upper House of the state legislature to Raj Bhavan, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray led a delegation to met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Wednesday to request him to approve the names at the earliest.

However, the Governor seems to have not given any concrete assurance to the delegation.

Thackeray was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte. The meeting lasted for an hour, sources said.

Pawar, speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, said that the delegation raised the issue, among others, about the appointment of the 12 names recommended by the Cabinet.

“There was no discussion about the recent Bombay High Court remarks on the delay in the appointment of the 12 people or on the Governor’s reservations to the names. We reminded him that a lot of time has passed since the names were recommended. Though it is his prerogative to approve the names, we requested him to give final approval to the names at the earliest,” he added.

Asked what was Koshyari’s response, Pawar said, “The Governor said that ‘I have heard you’ and ‘I will take an appropriate decision on it’.”
Pawar added that as per convention, the Governor was briefed about heavy rainfall and incidents of landslides that have taken place in the last few days in parts of the state among other issues.

On November 6, 2020, a delegation of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ministers, comprising Nawab Malik (NCP), Anil Parab (Shiv Sena) and Amit Deshmukh (Congress), had met Koshyari at Raj Bhavan and handed over a list of 12 names, recommended by Cabinet, to be nominated to the Legislative Council through the Governor quota.

However, Koshyari is yet to take a decision on it.

Last month, the HC had said that it is “desirable” that the Governor decides on the recommendations of the state Cabinet at the earliest.
It had further said it was the Governor’s obligation to accept or return the recommendations made by the Cabinet within a reasonable time and that seats in the Legislative Council “cannot be kept vacant indefinitely”, else the “statutory intent will stand defeated”.

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