Mumbai: The Covid-19 lockdown has put the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government in a tough spot. Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Thackeray is not a member of the legislature. And if he doesn’t manage to find a way into the state’s bicameral legislature — either the assembly (lower house) or the council (upper house) — by 27 May, he risks losing his chair.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is likely to play a big role in how things turn out for the Shiv Sena leader in the coming days.
Thackeray was sworn in as chief minister on 28 November 2019 at the head of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance that comprises the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress.
According to Article 164(4) of the Constitution, claimants to any ministerial position, including the chief minister’s, need to be a member of the legislature or become one within six months of appointment.
However, Thackeray had not contested the 2019 assembly election, where his party emerged as the second-biggest player after former ally BJP.
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A nominated ride to the House?
At a meeting Thursday that was not attended by Thackeray, the state cabinet recommended that he should be nominated to the legislative council as the governor’s nominee. The recommendation was made by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar of the NCP.
The governor can nominate 12 of the council’s 78 members. However, the six-year term of these 12 nominees will end on 6 June. Two of these seats have been vacant since NCP leaders Ramrao Wadkute and Rahul Narvekar defected to the BJP just before last year’s election. If Thackeray is nominated to one of these seats, his term will end 6 June and he will have to seek a fresh nomination from Governor Koshyari.
If the governor does not re-nominate him and he loses House membership, Thackeray will get another six months to become a member.
However, a minister in the state government suggested Thackeray’s prospects of getting nominated appeared dim, for now at least.
In December 2019, the minister said, the NCP had asked the governor to nominate party members Shivajirao Garje and Aditi Nalavade to the two vacant council seats. The governor had refused, pointing out that their term would end in six months, the minister added.
“The CM will get about two months if he is nominated. But when the governor has refused to nominate members because they would only have a six-month term, then it will be a wait-and-watch situation for the CM,” said the minister.
Also, according to Article 163(2) of the Constitution, it is not binding on the governor to accept the cabinet’s nomination.
All eyes on Koshyari
Thackeray can also set his sights on one of the nine non-nominated seats whose incumbents have completed their term. These are among the 66 seats where MLAs vote to elect members.
The election to these seats was to be held before 24 April. However, the Election Commission (EC) postponed it on account of Covid-19.
Thackeray’s situation is not without precedent. In September 1995, a month after former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s assassination, his son Tej Prakash Singh was inducted as a minister in the state cabinet even though he was not a legislator.
When he failed to win a seat in the assembly (Punjab has a unicameral legislature) in six months, he resigned, but was back as minister in November 1996.
A petition against his induction was dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, but the Supreme Court eventually ruled against Tej’s appointment.
All eyes will now be on Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, whose relationship with the government has been frosty since the drama over government formation in Maharashtra last year. The tensions seem to have deepened since the governor allegedly sidestepped the government to review Covid-19 operations.
On Wednesday, in an interaction with TV news channels, Shiv Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut lashed out at the governor, saying there could not be two parallel power centres. If the governor needs updates on the government’s fight against Covid-19, Raut said, he should speak to the chief minister or the chief secretary and not call meetings with district collectors.
In light of the fact that governors are central government appointees, political analyst Pratap Asbe said the BJP should think twice before making any move to dislodge Thackeray.
“The CM is doing a good job tackling Covid-19. Everyone is praising him,” he added. “The BJP may think twice about dislodging him as CM as he will get public sympathy… Besides, the PM, too, does not want a political crisis now.”
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