Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray meets governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena), Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar (NCP) and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat (Congress) met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari this evening. According to sources, the nomination of twelve members to the state legislative council is likely to be discussed in the meeting.
The Maharashtra Cabinet had sent the proposal to the Governor eight months ago, but the governor has not acted on it yet and kept it pending.
The matter had reached the Bombay High Court too and the court had observed that the seats in the legislative council "cannot be kept vacant indefinitely", nudging the Maharashtra Governor and the Chief Minister to discuss the issue of nominating members to the council - underlining that a delay of eight months in deciding the issue is beyond reasonable time.
The Maharashtra government had moved court over the Governor delaying the issue of nominating twelve members to the legislative council.
"This court cannot issue orders to the Governor, but it hopes that the Governor will decide on the matter soon," said the Bombay High Court.
"If there is an issue with any of the names, then the Governor and Chief Minister must discuss the issue," the court added.
The Maharashtra Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, has kept the proposal of the cabinet pending so far and not taken any decision on the matter.
"He must decide it either way. There is something he has to do. He can't keep it in his drawer, not to see the light of day," the court had observed during the hearing earlier.
Sources say actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, Congress leader Sachin Sawant are among the twelve names in the list sent to the Governor.