After a delay of over a month and half, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik rejected five names out of the total nine nominations to the State legislative Council sent by the Samajwadi Party Government in May last saying “other names needs more verification.”
A statement from Raj Bavan here on Thursday said the Governor has approved the nominations of SRS Yadav, lilawati Kushwaha, Ramvriksh Singh Yadav and Jitendra Yadav.
Jitendra Yadav is the father-in-law of RJD chief lalu Prasad’s daughter Ragini, leelawati Kushwaha is currently the chairperson of Mahila Kalyan Nigam and SRS Yadav is an SP old-timer and Mulayam loyalist.
However, the Governor has refused to give approval to the names of Kamlesh Kumar Pathak, Sanjay Seth, Ranvijay Singh, Abdul Sarfraz Khan and Rajpal Kashyap and has returned the applications back to the Government for further verification.
Naik has informed Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav about the decision during his meeting with him on Thursday afternoon. “Governor has handed over copies of complaint received against these five people and asked CM to conduct a detailed enquiry and report him back at the earliest,” Raj Bhavan spokesman said.
Couple of social workers and members of other organisations have opposed Government recommendation saying how a builder and other SP leaders having criminal record could be nominated for the seats meant for intellectuals.
Recently, Income Tax (IT) sleuths had raided the offices and residences of builder Sanjay Seth.
The Governor has asked the Chief Minister to recommend the names of the people, who have excelled in the field of literature, science and art for the nominated MlC posts.
The UP Government had recommended nine names for the MlCs on May 21 last but the Governor had put on hold the nominations and sought three-point queries on the applications of the candidates.
Raj Bhavan had sought detailed bio-data of all the candidates including their criminal record, their conviction or punishment. Secondly, they have been asked to give details of bank loan of the candidates and whether they are defaulter or not. Thirdly, the Governor had asked in which field these candidates have excelled or made contributions.
The Governor has asked the CM to select the candidates as per the directives in Article 171(E) along with Article 171(5) of the Constitution.