Ahead of the monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislature on Monday (July 17), the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Sunday boycotted the tea party given by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as Mr. Shinde called the Opposition’s agenda “confused.”
At the same time, the Chief Minister, addressing a press conference flanked by his two Deputy Chief Ministers — the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis and the NCP’s Ajit Pawar — said the tripartite ruling government would do full justice to questions raised by the Opposition leaders.
“The Opposition will not receive step-motherly treatment despite the ruling alliance having more than 210 [of the 288] MLAs on its side,” Mr. Shinde said, remarking that his government had belied persistent speculation of his regime falling and had instead gone from strength to strength after the NCP’s inclusion.
The State is set to witness an atrophied opposition following the recent split within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) engineered by Mr. Ajit Pawar, who, until recently used to be the Leader of the Opposition (LoP).
Both Mr. Ajit Pawar and Mr. Fadnavis assured that despite the government growing in strength with the adhesion of the former’s NCP faction, the ruling party’s power would not be “misused” and that there would be constructive debate in the upcoming session.
“We will not stifle the Opposition’s voice. All questions would be sorted in an atmosphere of cordiality. We will ensure that all answers given to questions raised by the Opposition are comprehensive and not vague and superficial,” said Mr. Ajit Pawar.
Mr. Fadnavis reiterated the achievements of the Shinde-BJP government after a year of it being in office, namely in respect to foreign direct investments and industrial investments.
The Opposition MVA leaders, including Congressman Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan and Sharad Pawar-led NCP camp loyalists Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad met in the chamber of Shiv Sena (UBT) camp leader Ambadas Danve, who is Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.
‘Apathy towards farmers’
Hitting out at the Eknath Shinde-led coalition, Mr. Danve said the government was completely apathetic towards farmers taking their own lives and about the deteriorating law and order in the State.
“This is an anti-farmer government…despite the Chief Minister promising that it was his duty to stop farmers from taking the extreme step, it has proved spectacularly unsuccessful,” he said.
Mr. Danve further said the people were confused as to who was the real Chief Minister of the State.
“In the current political scenario, people are confused as to who is Chief Minister? Is it Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis or Ajit Pawar?” he said.
With both the Shiv Sena and the NCP witnessing vertical splits, the position of the LoP in the Legislative Assembly is to be claimed by the Congress, which now has the largest number of MLAs (45) among the three opposition parties.
While the party has yet to propose its choice for the LoP, names of senior Congressmen Balasaheb Thorat, Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok Chavan are being floated around.
