Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan
Credit: @DrTamilisaiGuv
Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has rejected the state cabinet's recommendation to nominate ruling BRS leader Sravan Dasoju and former MLA Kurra Satyanarayna as MLCs under the Governor's quota.
The Governor is understood to have cited the unsuitability, as per relevant rules, of the two persons for nomination.
Condemning the Governor's decision, state Legislative Affairs Minister V Prashant Reddy on Monday said it is completely wrong to reject the nomination of the two as they had political backgrounds.
The rejection of Sravan Dasoju and Kurra Satyanarayana who belong to the Most Backward Classes and ST respectively, tantamount to insulting the MBCs and ST (Erukula) of Telangana, he said in a release.
Soundararajan insulted the Telangana statehood activists as they had a political background, but she was appointed to the post of Governor despite being the president of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, he said.
"She should quit her post if she has moral values," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, had opined that those not related to politics should be appointed as Governors as per the view of the Sarkaria Commission on Centre-state relations.
However, a BJP state unit president was appointed as Governor, which is against the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission, he claimed.
Soundararajan has no moral right to continue in office as she became Governor after being in politics, he added.
The ties between Soundarajan and the BRS government have not been on the best of terms, though there have been signs of a thaw in recent times.
The Governor had earlier complained of protocol not being followed during her visits, while state ministers and others expressed reservations about her functioning.
However, she had recently visited the new state Secretariat complex where she was welcomed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Meanwhile, Union Minister and state BJP president G Kishan Reddy welcomed the Governor's decision.
He said intellectuals, poets, artistes and social activists are supposed to be nominated from the Governor's quota and President's (at the national level) quota, he said in a release.
He said renowned sportsperson P T Usha and film writer Vijayendra Prasad, who have nothing to do with BJP, were proposed as MPs, which got the President's assent, Kishan Reddy said.