Calling the BJP an “anti-backward classes party”, BRS leader and Telangana MLC K Kavitha on Tuesday, 26 September, slammed Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan for rejecting the state Cabinet’s recommendation to nominate two of the ruling party leaders as MLCs.
She also said the Governor’s actions were against the “federal spirit”.
Soundararajan rejected the recommendation to nominate Sravan Dasoju and former MLA Kurra Satyanarayana as MLCs under the Governor’s quota, drawing criticism from the ruling party and the Telangana government.
“Those two persons who were nominated by the state Cabinet belong to the Backward Classes (BCs).
In a bid to provide opportunities to those who could not come to the legislature through direct elections, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao proposed these names,” explained Kavitha.
“The Governor’s rejections prove that the BJP is an anti-BC party,” she said, hitting out at Soundararajan.
“Everyone feels that the Governor’s rejection is against the federal spirit of the country.She rejected it citing several reasons,” Kavitha noted.
Raising doubts as to whether the “Constitution of Bharat” or the “Constitution of Bharatiya Janata Party” was in force in the country and noting that Governors of several states behave in such a manner, Kavitha told reporters, “People are watching such behaviour.”
Kavitha further said every constitutional body had rights and limits, and yet these Governors were behaving in such a manner, keeping aside these limits and rights.
She also alleged that the BJP, which has done “injustice” to BC women in the recently passed Women’s Reservation Bill, was unable to tolerate the growth of BCs.
Reacting sharply to the Governor’s decision, Legislative Affairs Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy tried to turn the tables against her by questioning her eligibility to become the Governor of Telangana.
She was Tamil Nadu BJP state president before she was appointed as the Governor of of the state.
He said, according to Sarkaria Commission recommendations, Tamilisai Soundararajan could not be considered for the appointment as the Governor of a state.
He insisted that Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana were more than eligible to be appointed as MLCs under the Governor’s quota.
In the past, the Governor had ruffled the feathers of the BRS government when she rejected the recommendation of the Cabinet to appoint Padi Kaushik Reddy under the Governor’s quota to the Council.
Following that, the government had to send him formally to the Council through the MLAs’ quota.
In her four years in office as the Governor of Telangana, Soundararajan had rubbed the state government on the wrong side several times.
She had kept several bills passed by the Assembly pending for one reason or the other.She did not give her assent easily to the bill relating to taking TSRTC employees on government rolls.
Governor’s reasoning
The Governor sent back the files for the appointment of the MLCs to the government, quoting profusely various Acts and Sections to establish the point that both Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana were ineligible to be appointed as MLCs under the Governor’s quota.
She said that both were active in politics and that there was no evidence to indicate that they had achievements to their credit either in literature, science, art, the cooperative movement, or social service.
She said that, apparently, the pre-conditions required under Article 171(5) of the Constitution for appointing them under the Governor’s quota were not met.
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