The unusual decision of Telangana Governor E S L Narasimhan to reject the Telangana Municipal Bill passed by the state assembly on the ground that it had several loopholes has triggered a lot of speculation in the state political circles.
Though the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao quickly made amendments to the bill and made appropriate changes in the bill as suggested by the Governor and issued an ordinance.
Though the new municipal act has come into force now, it is through ordinance route and the bill has to be reintroduced in the next assembly session to be made into the act. So, the special assembly session to pass the act has lost its sanctity.
Apparently, KCR was very much peeved with Narasimhan’s decision to reject the bill. He told the assembly that he had personally taken every care to draft the bill and every word of the bill was introduced after a careful study.
If there are any contentious issues, he could have discussed with the Governor well in advance. In fact, KCR had met Narasimhan before the commencement of the session and he must have surely discussed the bill with him. And the Governor could have made suggestions then itself.
But by rejecting the bill after it was passed in the assembly, Narasimhan triggered speculations that there must be definitely political reasons behind his move.
Apparently, the BJP leaders lodged a complaint with the Modi government on how KCR was trying to bulldoze the bill and capture all powers of the civic bodies so as to deny chance to the opposition parties.
Incidentally, BJP leaders led by former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya also met Narasimhan and sought his intervention and urged him not to give his nod to it as it goes against the Constitution.
And following instructions from the Modi government, Narasimhan could have made the changes in the bill, sources said.
This has led to speculation that the Modi government might be using Narasimhan to corner KCR in the coming days, if at all it wants to continue him as the Governor.
Even if a new Governor is appointed, he will be naturally acting according to the directions of the Centre.
“In the coming days, one is expected to witness more such differences between Pragathi Bhavan and Raj Bhavan,” sources said.
During a recent interaction with the media, when TRS working president K T Rama Rao was asked on the plans of the Centre to challenge the TRS through the institution of Governor, he said the Governor does not campaign for any party. If the institutions are misused, the party would give its response, he said.