Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray urged to convene meeting to finalise names for Legislative Council

The Congress and NCP in Maharashtra have urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to hold a meeting of the three ruling parties at the earliest to finalise the names of 12 members for their nomination to the Legislative Council.

The parties said that the names need to be finalised soon as they need to be recommended to Governor B S Koshyari for their nomination to the council.

According to a source, Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat and state NCP chief Jayant Patil have recently requested the chief minister to convene a meeting to finalise the names.

"However, no decision has been taken so far," the source said.

Eight members of the Upper House of the state legislature retired on June 6, while two others are set to retire on June 15 and 16. Two NCP members, whose term also ended on June 6, had quit to join the BJP last year.

However, the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government is yet to take a decision on finalising the names for 12 Governor-appointed members of the council.

A senior Congress leader said, "It has already been decided during the formation of the MVA government that each of the three parties will get four members each. But Shiv Sena is now asking for five seats, which we will not agree at any cost."

The Congress leader expressed hope that the meeting to finalise the names of the members will be held soon although Thackeray is busy in handling the COVID-19 situation in the state and providing relief to the people from coastal parts that were affected by last week's cyclone 'Nisarga'.

"Finalising the names of the governor appointees is very important. The cabinet needs to make recommendation to the governor soon," he said.

Meanwhile, Congress ministers in the state held a meeting to discuss the probable candidates to be nominated to the council from the governor's quota.

"The other issues discussed were development works in the constituecies of Congress MLAs, appointments to the state boards and corporations," a party minister said.

The Congress ministers had also met on Wednesday to discuss the policy decisions of departments, held by the party ministers, being taken without taking them into confidence.