A wait of three years finally ended three hours to go for the Assembly election date announcement, and just in time to beat the Model Code of Conduct, with seven nominated MLCs being sworn in to the Maharashtra House Tuesday afternoon.
In a late-night move, Governor C P Radhakrishnan cleared the names Monday, acting on the recommendation of the state Cabinet. An attempt by the Shiv Sena (UBT) to stall it failed, with the Bombay High Court refusing an urgent hearing.
All the seven MLCs sworn in Tuesday belong to the ruling Mahayuti alliance – three to the BJP, and two each to the Shiv Sena and NCP. The BJP MLCs are its state women’s wing chief Chitra Wagh, state general secretary Vikrant Patil, and spiritual leader of Banjara community Dharmaguru Babusingh Maharaj Rathod. The NCP nominees include its former MLA and Chhagan Bhujbal’s son Pankaj Bhujbal, and Idris Naikwadi. The Shiv Sena nominees are former MLC Manish Kayande and ex-Lok Sabha MP Hemant Patil.
A total of 12 MLC posts, to be filled under the Governor’s quota, have been vacant since 2021, when the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government gave its list of names for the first time to then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. But despite that and a second submission by the government before it fell, Koshyari neither rejected nor accepted the nominations. The MVA approached the Bombay High Court, but the court refused to give any direction to the Governor.
A senior leader from the Shiv Sena said that a decision was taken to fill only seven of the nominated MLC posts now, to keep options post-elections open, plus to avoid any friction over the distribution among allies at this time.
As news came in of the nominations, and the swift swearing-in, Tuesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and spokesperson Sushma Andhare asked: “Does anybody tell the BJP beforehand about the announcement of elections? Has the Governor too forgotten about his rights, which are to be used with integrity? At a time when a case about the previous list is pending in court, a constitutional process is being strangled by violating all the norms.”
Linking it to the Opposition’s campaign that the Constitution was “under threat” with the Modi government at the Centre, Andhare said: “The nominations show that the threat to the Constitution has not ended even today.”
Two of the BJP nominees, Wagh and Patil, are active party leaders, and among the most aggressive in attacking the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. The choice of Babusingh Maharaj Rathod is a gesture by the BJP towards the politically important Banjara community, with influence in parts of Vidarbha, such as Yavatmal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Yavatmal district last week and attended a Banjara community programme.
The NCP has pacified its senior-most leader and a powerful OBC face, Chhagan Bhujbal, who has been making discordant noises over the Maratha quota issue, with the nomination of son Pankaj. Its other choice, Naikwadi, is the chief of the NCP’s minority cell and hails from western Maharashtra, where the party hopes to spread its wings in the coming polls. The NCP has been feeling vulnerable regarding its minority vote, as the BJP Hindutva rhetoric gains momentum ahead of the polls.
Shiv Sena nominee Hemant Patil had been denied a ticket in this year’s Lok Sabha polls from his Hingoli seat, reportedly after an adverse survey by the BJP. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had assured his rehabilitation then and last month appointed him chairman of the Balasaheb Thackeray Turmeric Research and Training Centre with Minister of State status. Now he is an MLC as well.
The second Sena MLC, Manisha Kayande, is a party spokesperson and known for her aggressive attacks against the Thackeray-led Sena.
While refusing to give any direction to Koshiyari to clear the MVA nominees, in its order in August 2021, the Bombay High Court had said it was “desirable” that the Governor decide on the 12 nominations at the earliest, since more than eight months had already passed after the posts fell vacant.
The High Court had also said that 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”.
But while the MVA government’s recommendations never got past the Raj Bhavan, the Mahayuti alliance, soon after coming to power in July 2022, wrote to the Governor requesting him to withdraw the 12 names proposed by the previous government for the MLC posts.
On September 26, 2022, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice K M Joseph said the “matter needs consideration” and directed the Maharashtra government not to take any steps in connection with the vacant posts. The situation stayed the same till July 2023 when, keeping the question of law open, the apex court allowed petitioner Sunil Modi to institute independent proceedings.
After Modi approached the High Court, the Maharashtra government submitted to the court that no new recommendations had been made for the MLC posts.
The petition is still pending in the court.
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