Rift has surfaced in the Maharashtra’s ruling alliance over the nominations of 12 Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) from the Governor quota.
After the Supreme Court lifted stay on the appointment of 12 MLCs to the state legislative council from the governor’s quota, Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are likely to send the list to the Maharashtra Governor Ramesh Bais.
Tussle is on over formula for the individual share of the alliance. Earlier, the BJP had arrived at 8/4 when it was Shiv Sena’s Eknath and BJP at the helm of state affairs but after the inclusion of Ajit Pawar with NCP MLAs, the dynamics of sharing seats have changed.
Highly placed sources in the BJP has told the TSG that in the changed scenario with one more partner having come in the ruling alliance formula of 6/3/3, with BJP 6, Shinde Sena faction 3, Ajit Pawar NCP faction 3 . For Shinde and Ajit Pawar, it will be helpful in attracting politicians from the camps of Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.
BJP for its 6 nominations is looking to accommodate names recommended by RSS and party experts from different fields.
In September last year, CM Shinde had cancelled the 12 names recommended by Uddhav Government to the then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. The then governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari had also been slammed by the then MVA government, led by Uddhav Thackeray for delaying the proposal sent by the government deliberately to help the BJP.
The first list of 20 names of eminent personalities had been submitted by Uddhav Thackeray to the then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari in November 2020 in anticipation of the governor acting upon the decision of the state Cabinet.
Seeing delay by the Governor, Sharad Pawar took a jibe on Koshiyari by saying “his age is a concern and may have forgotten to act on the list”. Later, a PIL was filed for the delay in taking decision by Koshiyari in a reasonable time.
Earlier, the tussle was between the Rajbhavan and the Uddhav government but now, bickering has started among the alliance partners.