Maha CM, ministers meet governor, ask him to approve 12 names as MLCs

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and senior ministers on Wednesday met Governor B S Koshyari at Raj Bhavan here and requested him to approve the 12 names sent by the state Cabinet last year to be nominated as MLCs from the governor's quota without a further delay.

Thackeray was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar (NCP) and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat (Congress).

Speaking to reporters, Ajit Pawar said, "We told the Governor that it would be better if he clears the 12 names approved by the state Cabinet for nomination to the legislative council. We requested him to clear the names at the earliest. He heard us out. We said a lot of time has passed since the Cabinet approved these names. He said he would take an appropriate decision," Pawar said.

He said the Governor was also apprised about the rain situation, dam storage and other information.

The Maharashtra government had approved 12 names for the Upper House in November 2020 after the nominated seats fell vacant in June last year after the term of the sitting members ended.

The delay by Koshyari in deciding on the state cabinet's proposal has become a major bone of contention between him and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress.

The government had argued that the Governor should have accepted its proposal on nominations and he cannot keep his decision pending.

The Bombay High Court, while hearing a petition filed by a Nashik resident seeking a direction to the Governor to decide on the nominations, had last month said the Governor has a constitutional obligation to either accept or reject within a reasonable time the proposal sent by the state cabinet to nominate 12 persons as MLCs.