BackSquabbling opposition lets BJP off the hook in Maharashtra
No discussion on key issues in state assembly as NCP, Congress remain at loggerheads over post of leader of the opposition
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Nagpur: The winter session of the Maharashtra assembly has begun in Nagpur but, after a protracted hunt for a government ally, there is no leader of the opposition to raise burning issues such as an ongoing drought and rising number of farmers’ suicides.
The reason, unlike in Parliament, is not that there’s no opposition party with more than 10% of the seats to qualify for the leader of the opposition position. Rather, it is that the Shiv Sena, after sitting in the opposition, has suddenly crossed over to the treasury benches.
Shiv Sena, the second largest party in the state legislature with 63 members, announced it would sit in the opposition during the inaugural session on 10-12 November. This meant its group leader Eknath Shinde automatically became leader of the opposition. But within three weeks, the party changed its mind and is now part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
All of the Marathwada region, as well as some parts of Vidarbha and northern Maharashtra are facing severe drought for the third consecutive year, causing more than 200 farmers to take their own lives, according to various non-governmental organizations and opposition parties.
An opposition would also test the government’s plans and resolve on issues related to a demand for statehood for Vidarbha region and abolition of the local body tax.
The BJP claims to be ideologically in support of the idea to create smaller states of existing large ones, which would include Vidarbha. But its alliance partner Shiv Sena is a strong backer of the idea of a Samyukta (united) Maharashtra.
Similarly, the BJP, in its assembly poll manifesto, pledged to scrap the local body tax that had replaced the octroi duty in many municipal corporations in the state in 2013. The trading community is opposed to local body tax as it fears it to be a vehicle to reintroduce a regime of inspections. The government has taken a cautious stand on this issue and finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar says the abolition of the local body tax before the planned introduction of a goods and services tax by the central government seems to be impossible.
The opposition has enough fodder to corner the government during the winter session, which takes place in the state’s second capital Nagpur. However, opposition parties are currently busy fighting each other over the issue of who should get the post of leader of the opposition.
While the Congress party claims it is the single largest party after the ruling BJP-Sena alliance with 42 members in the assembly, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 41 members claims the post of leader of the opposition saying its numbers go up to 46 counting the seats of its poll allies (Bahujan Vikas Aghadi which has three legislators and two independent candidates who were backed by the NCP and who have got elected).
Chairman of the NCP’s legislative party Ajit Pawar said, “While staking the claim for the post of LoP in Lok Sabha, Congress argued that with its pre-poll allies, their number crosses requisite mark of 10% of total strength of the House. We want Congress to follow the same logic here."
Girish Kuber, editor of Marathi daily Loksatta, called the situation in Maharashtra a theatre of the absurd.
“The party which was in opposition till yesterday (Sena), has joined the government and the party (NCP) which supported government till last week is claiming the post of leader of the opposition. This is a very unfortunate situation," he said.
The Congress and the NCP are only busy in trying to settle scores and do not seem to have any strategy to corner the government on issues such as drought relief, he added.
Hemant Desai, a commentator on political economy, said: “It is said power inculcates wisdom and the BJP’s about-turn on the issue of local body tax seems to be a manifestation of this phenomenon. The local body tax provides revenue of around ₹ 14,500 crore to municipal corporations and if they decide to scrap it, they will have to compensate these municipal corporations. And compensating municipal corporations from its own coffers when the state is suffering from drought is simply not possible."
The BJP raised the local body tax issue to channel anger of the trading community against the previous government, Desai said, adding if it goes back on the promise, “they will have to face the wrath of this powerful community sooner or later".
A squabbling opposition has allowed the ruling coalition to sit back. As Fadnavis told reporters on Tuesday, “We have no intention of winding up the session; we will run the session till the time the opposition wants—but let them come out first with a list of issues on which they want to have a discussion in the legislature."
At the moment, that seems to be a big ask.
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