The Shiv Sena-led MVA Government has made a recommendation to Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to nominate Bollywood actress Urmila Matondekar as one of the 12 members in the State Legislative Council that are due to be fillled from the fields of literature, science, arts, cooperative sector and social service.
Confirming that Matondkar’s name had been recommended by the State Government for nomination as one of the 12 members of the State Legislative Council, Shiv Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said: “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has spoken to Matondkar. She has given her consent for being nominated as an MLC by the Governor”.
Informed official sources said that the 12 nominated members were finalised at the weekly State Cabinet meeting held on Thursday. Subsequently, the 12 recommended names were sent in a sealed cover to the Governor for formal approval and declaration of the nominated members.
Given that the nominations are required from the fields of literature, science, arts, cooperative sector and social service, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners –Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress – are understood to have taken care that the names recommended were the specified fields of activities. The three parties have reportedly four names each.
The reported recommendation of Matondkar’s names on the heel of “Rangeela” actress crossed swords with controversial actress Kangana Ranaut. Matondkar had slammed Kangana for her comment likening Mumbai to PoK and said she would “never tolerate any defamatory remark” about the city.
On Kangana’s comment about rampant drug use by Bollywood personalities, Urmila had said that if Kangana had information about illegal drugs in Bollywood she should look to her State Himachal Pradesh and would be better served by going to the authorities rather than tweeting about it.
“Which girl from a civilised cultured house would use this kind of language? Like ‘kya ukhaad loge’, ‘kiska baap ka kya hai’, speaking about Jaya ji the way she did,” Urmila said in a television interview. On her part, Kangana hit back at Urmila by calling her “a soft porn star”. “She isn’t known for acting for sure and is known for doing soft porn. If she can get a ticket, why won’t I get a ticket?,” Kangana had asked.
Matondkar, it may be recalled, had joined the Congress and contested the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai unsuccessfully against BJP’s Raju Shetty in the 2019 polls. She quit the Congress after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The Governor’s nomination of 12 members to the Upper House of the State Assembly has been delayed considerably, given the terms of the earlier nominated members ended on June 15. So much so that the Shiv Sena had joined issue with the Opposition in July this year over the delay in the nomination of 12 members by the Governor to the State Legislative Council.
In his Sunday column ‘Rokhtok’ in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Shiv Sena’s MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut had ticked off the Opposing BJP by accusing it of playing politics every during the Covid-19 and trying to influence the “Union Home Ministry-nominated” Governor to delay the process of nominating 12 new members to the Upper House of State Legislature in place of equal number of outgoing legislators whose terms ended on June 15.
Indirectly suggesting that the current Governor was not in a mood to nominate the 12 persons recommended by the Maharashtra Cabinet headed by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Raut had written in his column: “Normally the Governor appoints experts from various fields as members of the Council based on the recommendation of the State Cabinet. If the nomination does not happen on time, such a thing would tantamount to trampling upon the Constitution and gagging of the State Council. This thing had happened during the Emergency”.
“Even today the BJP targets the Congress repeatedly by saying that by imposing Emergency in the country in the seventies, late Mrs Indira Gandhi took away the freedom of people and trampled upon the human rights of the citizens. “Even now the BJP observes June 25, 1975 (the day Mrs Gandhi imposed Emergency) as a black day.
Raut had said that Governor Koshyari had given clear indications that because of the Coronavirus crisis, he was not in favour of completing the nomination process immediately. “In effect, the nomination of 12 legislations will have to wait till October. The Opposition BJP does not want the Governor to nominate the 12 persons recommended by the Uddhav Thackeray Cabinet to the Council as members. That’s why the Opposition is trying to stretch the nomination process till October using the Governor’s office,” Raut had said.
Saturday, 31 October 2020 | TN Raghunatha | Mumbai
