Mumbai: AThe Maharashtra Opposition’s prayers were finally answered.
After a tumultuous and turbulent tenure of just 42 months, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s “resignation” has been accepted and he packs up his bags for “voluntary retirement” at 80.
In his entire term, the Governor seemed to break and create his own records in attaining political unpopularity, repeatedly rubbing the then political dispensation the wrong way and treading on multiple Opposition toes.
A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister, he was appointed to the crucial post in September 2019 – just when the state was going to the Assembly elections.
Much to the chagrin of the BJP, a fractured electoral verdict gave birth to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, and Uddhav Thackeray was elected the alliance’s Chief Minister, and prepared to take the oath shortly.
On November 23, 2019, as the state had barely woken up, Koshyari suddenly administered the oath to a two-man government with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as the CM, and NCP’s Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM, in an early morning operation.
It was billed as the most “secretive” ever, closed door, exercise of a democratic government formation, in the curtained Raj Bhavan, with a handful of officials present, in the absence of all dignitaries and even the media excluded.
The new two-member government crashed as abruptly as it had taken office – in barely 80 hours – and a visibly dejected Koshyari swallowed his pride to swear-in Thackeray as the CM after 5 days – ironically, in an open ground, and a nationally-televised public ceremony.
That was the beginning of the non-stop friction and undeclared war between the Koshyari and the MVA regime – until it crashed after 31 months in June 2022.
Probably feeling embarrassed later, the Governor conveniently omitted that “dawn oath-taking ceremony” from his two-year memoirs – a fact which was gleefully pointed out by NCP President Sharad Pawar.
Senior MVA leaders recall how the Governor created hurdles routinely, displayed non-cooperation, remained aloof from “his” government, failed to honour the Cabinet’s recommendations on 12 nominated MLCs, blocked the Assembly Speaker’s election, shot off letters to the CM Thackeray questioning his ‘Hindutva’ credentials and the law and order situation, derided revered icons of the state like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, and Savitri Phule, cast slurs on the ability of the Marathi people by saying Maharashtra-Mumbai would not have developed without Gujaratis-Marwaris, and many other controversies.
For one or more of these, Koshyari was unabashedly bashed by the MVA and other Opposition parties, even the descendents of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj bayed for his blood, he faced condemnation, some publicly and privately sniggered at him, processions were taken out, top leaders complained against him to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister, many openly demanded his removal, and on at least a couple of occasions, he was forced to apologise, though he apparently basked in the company of MVA-bashers and BJP-supporters.
However, his functioning seemed quite different with the new government of CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis, he was “at home” with its leaders and ministers, though the Opposition MVA remained suspicious.
With his growing political unpopularity, in January, Koshyari revealed that he had asked the PM to relieve him of his duties so he could retire from public life – and all his detractors were overjoyed in anticipation.
Nothing seemed to move for three weeks, as Koshyari reluctantly continued to play his role as the Governor – till the hazy morning of February 12.
The state woke up to a Rashtrapati Bhavan announcement that President Droupadi Murmu had accepted Koshyari’s resignation and even named Ramesh Bais as his successor, who will assume charge soon in Maharashtra.
Given the Koshyari experience, the exulting Opposition parties are keeping their fingers crossed over the incoming new Governor-designate, with some already advising that he should not act like a “BJP puppet!”
–IANS