Maharashtra cabinet has decided to recommend Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s name for the governor’s nominated member for the state legislative council. This was decided in a cabinet meeting chaired by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
Uddhav Thackeray took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister on November 28, 2019, and is not the member of either house - legislative assembly or council. According to the Indian constitution, within six months of taking the oath, any minister is supposed to get elected in either state legislative assembly or council.Article 164 (4) of the Indian constitution states that a minister who is not a member of the legislature for any six consecutive months shall cease to be a minister. The constitution doesn’t allow the extension of the six-month time frame.
The deadline for Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to get elected to the state legislature is May 27. The Election Commission has postponed the upcoming elections for the Rajya Sabha and other local bodies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Maharashtra cabinet, in absence of CM Uddhav Thackeray, decided to recommend his name to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari who has two vacant seats from the governor’s quota. The cabinet has recommended Thackeray’s name on one of them in order to avoid a constitutional crisis.
If the Governor fails to act on the cabinet’s recommendation, the Maharashtra CM will have to resign. In such a case, Uddhav Thackeray can resign for a day and take oath as the Chief Minister again. However, according to article 163 (1) of the Indian constitution, the Governor has to act on the advice of the council of ministers.
The two seats from the governor’s quota of nominees are vacant after Ramrao Wadkute and Rahul Narvekar resigned. Ramrao Wadkute earlier resigned as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLC to joined Bhartiya Janata Paty (BJP) while Narvekar was elected as a BJP MLA and had to resign as an MLC.
Earlier in December 2019, NCP had recommended the nomination of Shivajirao Garje and Aditi Nalawade which the governor didn’t pursue, leaving the two seats vacant.
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