'If the BJP
doesn't want to accept the will of the people, then we will show them what a
majority means.'
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi
greets Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Pune when they met for
the first time after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was formed last
December. Photograph: @OfficeofUT/Twitter
Maharashtra's Minorities
Affairs Minister Nawab Malik has lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for
playing "dirty politics" and using the governor's office over Chief
Minister Uddhav Thackeray's election to the state legislative council.
Malik, a Nationalist
Congress Party politician, is also critical of Prime Minister Narendra
Damodardas Modi for applying double standards when it came to relaxing lockdown
restrictions in Maharashtra and the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
Even as the COVID-19
pandemic is playing out its worst in Maharashtra, the BJP and the constituents
of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government -- the Shiv Sena, the NCP and Congress --
are engaged in an intense political battle over Chief Minister Thackeray's election
to the Maharashtra legislative council.
Thackeray, who was sworn in
as chief minister on November 28, 2019, is not a member of either the
legislative council or legislative assembly.
The six-month window
offered by the Constitution in such situations will close on May 28, before
which Thackeray has to be elected to either the council or assembly in
Maharashtra.
Senior NCP leader and state
Irrigation Minister Jayant Patil met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari
to find a way out of this Constitutional conundrum on Tuesday evening.
Patil told reporters he was
hopeful of ending the impasse over Thackeray's election before May 28.
The earlier plan was to get
Thackeray elected to the legislative council, but the Election Commission
postponed the election in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent
national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Modi.
"Let the Election
Commission order a fresh election. We will emerge victorious again," Malik
tells.
"We have the majority
even now (in the assembly), but if the BJP doesn't want to accept the
will of the people, then we will show them what a majority means," warns
Malik, who alleges that the BJP is misusing the governor's office to
destabilise the state government.
IMAGE: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray
receives Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai,
December 1, 2019. Photograph: Mitesh Bhuvad/PTI Photo
Attempts to convince
Koshyari -- who has been a BJP chief minister of Uttarakhand -- to accept the
state cabinet recommendation to have Thackeray nominated as a
governor-nominated member of the legislative council has so far failed to find
acceptance at Maharashtra's Raj Bhavan.
Koshyari has yet to respond
to this recommendation made by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on April 10.
Senior Shiv Sena leader and
Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut tweeted that 'Raj bhavan, governor's house shouldn't
become center for political conspiracy. Remember! history doesn't spare those
who behave unconstitutionally'.
Senior BJP leader Chandrakant
Dada Patil has opposed the state cabinet's recommendation as 'unconstitutional
and contentious'.
Malik says the MVA is
prepared to fight the BJP politically and is confident that the state will not
head for a Constitutional crisis and Thackeray will be elected to the state
legislature.
"We have a clear
roadmap ready. Why should we divulge our options to the media? Let the BJP play
dirty politics (using the governor's office). We will give them a
fitting reply politically," Malik says.
The minister also hit out
at Prime Minister Modi for applying different restriction standards for
BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and non-BJP ruled states like Maharashtra.
"The central
government's guidelines are different for Uttar Pradesh and different for other
(non-BJP ruled states) states including Maharashtra. The central
government's guidelines lack clarity about what its plans are to revive
economic activity once the national lockdown is lifted," Malik points out.
He blames Modi's lockdown
policies for the issue of restless migrant labourers desperate to return to
their native villages, but having no transportation means to do so.
"Modi's lockdown
policies are different for Yogi Adityanath (the UP chief minister) and
different for the rest of the country," says Malik.
"We have been pleading
with the central government to make arrangements for migrant labourers who want
to return to their homes," the minister explains. "There are no
restrictions for the people of UP; they can violate all such guidelines (related
to the movement of migrant labourers)."
"Let Modi apply the
same yardstick to other states and offer the leeway that he has offered to Yogi
Adityanath."
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Politics