Senior opposition leaders today submitted a proposal under Rule 23 of the House to Legislature principal secretary Anant Kalse, seeking Aney’s removal from the key post.
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Aney sparked controversy on Sunday when he backed a demand for separate Marathwada state at an event organised by the Marathwada Mukti Morcha in Jalna. “Owaisi’s speech in Latur has repercussions in the state Assembly as well”, NCP’s Kiran Pawaskar said.
Congress leader Narayan Rane had hit out at Aney on Monday saying his head should be separated from his body, so he would understand how it feels when you break the state.
“Since I shall not stop from voicing my demand for Vidarbha’s statehood and the legislators will not stop from using it as a ready excuse to stall the working of the legislature, one of us has to step back”, Aney says in his statement.
Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil then asked if Aney’s resignation has been accepted as the AG had made statements that were “intended at breaking the state”. Trying to make an intervention, minister for parliamentary affairs Girish Bapat tried to argue he had spoken to CM Devendra Fadnavis and when he comes to Vidhan Bhavan a meeting would be called to discuss the issue. Fadnavis spoke with Aney yesterday and asked him to tender his resignation. He is now poised to take up the cause of Vidarbha statehood in a big way from March 31. The repeated disruptions led to adjournment of the both Houses for the day. He added that a new state reorganisation commission should be constituted as he believes no state should have a population exceeding 3 crore. It had evoked sharp reactions from the Opposition and the Shiv Sena who wanted his resignation. He had said the decision related to separate statehood exclusively came under the jurisdiction of Parliament and the Union government. Both Manohar and Aney hail from Nagpur, the hometown of Fadnavis and both had been handpicked for the job as his personal choices.
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Aney’s resignation has also embarrassed the government – in just 17 months of being in power, two AGs have resigned after serving a tenure of seven and four months respectively.
