PUDUCHERRY: The stage is set for a fresh round of confrontation between Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy.
Bedi has stoked a new controversy not only by jumping the gun in recommending a list of names to the Union Home Ministry for nominated MLA posts, but also by meddling with the practice of the CM sending such a list to the ministry through the L-G.
The Constitution empowers the central government to nominate three members, who are not in government service, to the legislative assembly. The home ministry appoints them based on the CM’s recommendation.
Sources confided that the names of BJP state president R Saminathan and a few other party functionaries, including a woman, were present in the list sent by Bedi. The list was okayed by BJP president Amit Shah.
Narayanasamy’s recent Delhi visit, according to sources, was to get a green light from the Congress leadership on the names picked for the nominated posts. But he was in for a shock when he came to know about Bedi’s move.
In an attempt to assert his rights, Narayanaswamy has submitted a list of names of prominent Congressmen directly to the Home Ministry.
The NDA camp has claimed that the CM’s recommendation was not a mandatory provision and it was the Centre that holds the discretionary powers to appoint nominated MLAs. Giving credence to their claim, they said when the Congress was in power in the UT and the BJP at the Centre in 1999-2000, a list of three names was sent to the Home Ministry by the then L-G Rajani Rai on his own, cutting short the practice of forwarding the recommendation of the then CM P Shanmugham.