With Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj away, politics over nominations to legislative Council has hit the roadblock in Karnataka.
Just few days to go before he vacates his position, Bhardwaj is in Delhi to meet the President, Prime Minister and other NDA Ministers. Nomination to legislative Council has hit the road block and politics has taken over the process.
In fact, it is a prerogative of the ruling Government to nominate as per the Constitution to legislative Council. It is learnt from Congress sources that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had sent names of five leaders to be nominated to the legislative Council but it has hit as Karnataka Governor is giving courtesy visits to president and Prime Minister in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the major Opposition BJP in Karnataka has written an official letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh asking him to put the nomination list on hold as it needs a close scrutiny. State BJP president and member of parliament Prahlad Joshi has written to the Union Home Minister and has urged him to direct the Karnataka Governor to reject the list of persons to be recommended to him by the Government for nomination to the legislative Council if it has the names of active politicians instead of eminent personalities.
In his letter Joshi alleged that the Congress Government in the State was set to nominate five of its active functionaries to the Council against the mandatory Constitutional requirement of nominating those from the fields of arts, science, literature or eminent persons who have contributed to the wellbeing of society.
The persons include those defeated in the elections and those who had been denied ticket to contest polls, Joshi said, and added that the Government was denying an opportunity to eminent personalities to represent their fields.
Joshi’s letter to the Union Home Minister is being seen in political circles as an effort to prevent any effort by the Congress Government to get the clearance for its recommendation before the Governor’s term expires.
According to a source in the Congress the State Government prepared a list of five persons to be nominated to the legislative Council. According to the list VS Ugrappa, a Congress functionary, Jaimala a film actress and Congress leader , Abdul Jabbar, Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi,(all Congress leaders ) and Shanthakumar — to be nominated as members of the Council.
According to sources in the CMs’ secretariat the file is waiting to be sent to the Governor. As per the law that nominations can be effected only on the end of term of the incumbent nominated members. While the incumbent members will retire on June 21, the Governor, who is presently in New Delhi, is also expected to arrive in Bangalore the same day.
Meanwhile former MP P Kodandaramaiah has urged Governor HR Bhardwaj not to approve the names of active politicians, those holding positions in the ruling party or those defeated in the recent elections, for nomination to the legislative Council as it will violate Article 171 of the Constitution.
In fact when Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister wanted to nominate BJP leader V Somanna Governor had rejected his nomination on grounds that he was an active politician.
Meanwhile to assuage the growing discontent in the party, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has indicated that he would expand his one-year-old Ministry.
"We have received lot of suggestions regarding how to fulfill promises made by the party to the people and take the State to number one position once again. Keeping all this in mind, after this session we will do some fine tuning," KPCC President G Parameshwara told reporters here.
In another development the Union Government is likely to appoint veteran BJP leader and sports administrator Vijay Kumar (V K) Malhotra (82) as the next Karnataka Governor. Present Governor HR Bhardwaj’s term ends on June 28.
BJP sources said that a few senior leaders of the party met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and requested to appoint Malhotra as the next Governor of the State.