Administering a rude jolt to the BRS government, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday, 25 September, rejected the Cabinet recommendations for the appointment of Dr Dasoju Sravan and Kurra Satyanarayana as Members of the Legislative Council, or MLCs, under the Governor’s quota.
The unsavoury development came at a time when the BRS was beginning to feel as if tensions were easing between Raj Bhavan and Pragati Bhavan, the party headquarters in Hyderabad.
The party leaders felt that there was a thaw in the frosty relations when the Governor visited the state Secretariat on 25 August and inaugurated three paces of worship — a temple, a mosque, and a church — on its premises.
There was much bonhomie on show as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao took Governor Soundararajan on a tour of the entire Secretariat building and explained its features to her.
‘Ineligible to be appointed’
But the feeling of comfort did not last very long when she sent back the files 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.
Except for the summary attached to the recommendations, no other details or documents for nomination as an MLC were enclosed, according to the Governor.
There were no reports either from the intelligence or other agencies indicating that they did not incur disqualification under sections 8 to 11(A) of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, she added.
The Governor said that the entire file, along with relevant records and the criteria required by the Constitution and the note file submitted to the Cabinet and the chief minister, were not enclosed along with the recommendations.
Just a summary without any documentation would not be enough for her to nominate them to the Council under the Governor’s quota, she said.
Asks to appoint non-politically affiliated people
The Governor said that there were several eminent non-politically affiliated people fulfilling the eligibility criteria prescribed under Article 171(A) of the Constitution.
“Filling these posts with people of political orientation will be doing a disservice to the experts in various fields for which the Governor’s quota is set apart.It would be a negation of the provision in the Constitution,” she said.
The Governor requested the Cabinet and the chief minister to avoid recommending politically-aligned persons to the council under the Governor’s quota as it would defeat the objectives enshrined under Article 171(5) of the Constitution.
