EXPOSED - BJP’s double standards on nominated posts
When it comes to appointing individuals to legislative councils in various States, the bjp has two separate sets of guidelines. Whoever is nominated by the State cabinet under the Governor's quota is accepted without problems in BJP-ruled States with Legislative Councils. In contrast, the governor challenges and sometimes even rejects nominations made under the Governor's quota in non-BJP states using the same criterion, as happened in Telangana.
Consider Uttar Pradesh, where the bjp is in power. Ten people were nominated for the Legislative Council under the Governor's Quota, eight of them were bjp members. Even the other two were included in the celebration. The governor didn't hesitate or ask any questions, though, and cleared the files. Jitin Prasad, a former leader of the Congress, joined the bjp and was subsequently nominated as an MLC and appointed to yogi Adityanath's cabinet.
Eight of the 11 governor Quota MLC positions in Karnataka, where the bjp ruled the state until May, were held by former ministers, MPs, MLAs, or party members. The other three were a tribal named Shantaram Budna Siddi, an economist named Talwar Sabanna, and a businessman named UB Venkatesh. The RSS backed Sabanna and Siddi equally. Siddi did really volunteer work at the Vanavasi kalyan Ashram, which is connected to the RSS.
Three years ago, the maha Vikas Aghadi administration in Maharashtra, which was led by uddhav thackeray, nominated 12 candidates for nomination as MLCs under the governor's quota, but the former governor, BS Koshyari, who is also an RSS veteran, never cleared the file. These nominations were withdrawn, and a new list is being created by the Eknath Shinde-led administration.
Consider Uttar Pradesh, where the bjp is in power. Ten people were nominated for the Legislative Council under the Governor's Quota, eight of them were bjp members. Even the other two were included in the celebration. The governor didn't hesitate or ask any questions, though, and cleared the files. Jitin Prasad, a former leader of the Congress, joined the bjp and was subsequently nominated as an MLC and appointed to yogi Adityanath's cabinet.
Eight of the 11 governor Quota MLC positions in Karnataka, where the bjp ruled the state until May, were held by former ministers, MPs, MLAs, or party members. The other three were a tribal named Shantaram Budna Siddi, an economist named Talwar Sabanna, and a businessman named UB Venkatesh. The RSS backed Sabanna and Siddi equally. Siddi did really volunteer work at the Vanavasi kalyan Ashram, which is connected to the RSS.
Three years ago, the maha Vikas Aghadi administration in Maharashtra, which was led by uddhav thackeray, nominated 12 candidates for nomination as MLCs under the governor's quota, but the former governor, BS Koshyari, who is also an RSS veteran, never cleared the file. These nominations were withdrawn, and a new list is being created by the Eknath Shinde-led administration.