The state cabinet twice made recommendations to nominate Uddhav Thackeray to the Legislative Council
Leaders of four small parties supporting the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Wednesday urged Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to take a decision on the state Cabinet's proposal to nominate Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as the Legislative Council member.
Mr Thackeray, who is not a member of either house of the Maharashtra legislature, was sworn in as chief minister on November 28 last year. He has to become a member by May 28 when he completes six months in office. Otherwise he will cease to the chief minister.
The state cabinet twice made recommendations to nominate Mr Thackeray to the Legislative Council through the governor's quota.
In their joint letter to Mr Koshyari, the leaders of the parties supporting the ruling MVA said that the governor should clarify the reasons as to why he has not nominated Mr Thackeray so far.
Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) leader Jayant Patil, Janata Dal (S) Maharashtra president Sharad Patil, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana's Raju Shetti and RPI (S) leader Shyam Gaikwad have written this letter.
In the letter, these parties recalled that the Maharashtra Cabinet had proposed Mr Thackeray's appointment to the state legislative Council as the governor's nominee on April 9 first and reminded him about it on April 28 (Tuesday), but the decision is yet to be taken.
The leaders said that there is "confusion" among the people on the issue and they (the people) are "clueless" since no decision has been taken yet.
"The confusion about the chief minister's post is not right at a time when the state led by Thackeray is combating the COVID-19 crisis," they said in the letter also signed by ex-Bombay High Court judge BG Kolse Patil, Pratap Hogade and Prabhakar Narkar of the JD(S) and Raju Korde of the PWP.
"Given the current situation, people are expecting you as the head of the state to take immediate decision regarding the appointment of Uddhav Thackeray (as MLC) and ask him (Thackeray) to focus on the fight against coronavirus," they said in the letter.
They also said that people should also know if there is any technical problem in the cabinet's decision.
"The decision regarding Shri Uddhav Thackeray's appointment to the legislative Council should be taken immediately. And people should know the reasons behind not taking that decision, so that the confusion among the people is cleared," they said.