Maharashtra: Governor Koshiyari allows withdrawal of 12 MLC nominees proposed by MVA

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday allowed to withdraw the list consisting of 12 names for the nomination to the legislative council (MLC seats) proposed by the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray in 2020.

The Governor’s move comes following Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s letter to the Governor seking the withdrawal of MLCs.

Earlier, there was a bitter exchange of words between the MVA government and the then Opposition BJP as MVA ladders were alleging that the Governor is holding the names back at the behest of the BJP.

The names proposed by MVA were held by the Governor for over two years without nominating them to the Legislative Council.

Now, the present Maharashtra government led by Eknath Shinde in a letter to Governor Koshyari sought withdrawal of the list of 12 Names for MLC nomination sent by the previous MVA government in 2020.

The government while withdrawing the names has informed Raj Bhavan that it will send a fresh list for MLC nomination.

The move comes two months after Shinde along with other Sena MLAs, rebelled against Thackeray to topple the MVA government and came to power in alliance with the BJP.

Former CM Uddhav Thackeray had in 2020, submitted to the Governor a list of 12 eminent persons for nomination to the Legislative Council. However, Koshyari had neither rejected nor accepted the nominations.

The list included the names of actor Urmila Matondkar, Vijay Karanjkar, Nitin Bangude-Patil and Chandrakant Raghuvanshi from the Shiv Sena; farmers’ leader Raju Shetti, former minister Eknath Khadse, Yashpal Bhinge and folk singer Anand Shinde from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP); and Rajni Patil, Sachin Sawant, Anniruddha Vankar and Muzaffar Hussain from the Congress.

However, when there was no response, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed before the Bombay High Court in this regard but the court refused to give any direction to the Governor.

The MVA leaders also brought the issue to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that the Governor was deliberately not appointing MLCs.