Council accords warm farewell to 11 members

MUMBAI, April 18: The Maharashtra Legislative Council today accorded a warm farewell to 11 members of the House, including Chairman Jayantrao Tilak, who will retire between April and July. Nine of them belong to the Congress, which is currently holding a tenuous majority in the Upper House, while one belongs to the BJP and one to the Peasants and Workers Party.

The retirement of these nine members is now likely to tilt the balance in favour of the alliance, because the Congress is currently not in a position to have as many members re-elected or nominated to the Upper House. In fact, the most piquant situation arises out of the retirement of Tilak, grandson of freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak. Tilak recently quit the Congress and decided to join hands with the BJP. However, owing to his position as Chairman of the Legislative Council he did not tender his resignation from the Congress per se but was said to have come to an informal understanding with the BJP who might now support his renomination tothe Upper House. Tilak has had two terms as chairman under successive Congress regimes.

An indication of this was available from the glowing references to him by Deputy Chairman N S Pharande, who also belongs to the BJP. “Tilak is the pride of the House. His opinion is very valuable to us,” Pharande said.