Pune: The BJP has given a chance to relatives of two sitting Member of Legislative Council’s (MLCs) in the Standing Committee. Now, Yogesh Mulik, brother of MLA Jagdish Mulik and Ranjana Tilekar, mother of sitting MLA Yogesh Tilekar have been given a chance to work on the Standing Committee.

However, both are competing for the Chairman’s post. 
Sunil Kamble, brother of Minister of State for Social Justice of Dilip Kamble, is also on the committee. Now, the committee has three relatives of sitting MLAs. 

Each year, eight committee members retire and new members replace them.  The elected committee members select one chairman by voting. 

After completing one year, recently eight members retired through the lucky draw system. Out of that, four members of BJP and two of NCP retired. One member each of Congress and Shiv Sena also retired. 

The BJP nominated four members namely Yogesh Mulik, Dilip Vede, Ranjana Tilekar and Umesh Gaikwad. NCP nominated Laxmi Dhudhane and Smitha Kondhare. The Congress and the Shiv Sena proposed the names of Vaishali Marathe and Sangeeta Thosar respectively. 

The BJP’s decision of giving nominations to two MLA’s relatives disappointed many. Hemant Rasane who is considered to be close to District Guardian Minister Girish Bapat did not get a chance in the committee. Rasane was confident of getting membership but at the last moment, his name was dropped.  Several party members are saying that other members should have been given a chance. 

Shrinath Bhimale, Leader of the House of BJP said, “We have taken the decision to nominate members as per party directives. It is within party protocol. We haven’t given membership based on their political relations.”  

The Standing Committee has 16 members. Parties get their share of members of the committee according to the proportion of elected members. Thus, the BJP has a majority of 10 members compared to other parties. The NCP has the second largest share in committee of four. Congress and Shiv Sena have one member each in the committee.