Legislative Council faces peculiar 'whip' situation: CM and LOP from same party

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s Legislative Council will see an unusual situation when it resumes work on February 27. The Chief Minister and the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the same house will be from the same party.

The situation arose after the Election Commission of India (ECI) gave control of the Shiv Sena party name and symbol to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. LOP Ambadas Danve is from the Uddhav Thackeray camp, which calls itself the real Shiv Sena pending the Supreme Court’s decision in many cases related to the same issue. Danave was selected as the LOP during the 2022 monsoon session.

Generally CM and LOP come from different parties. In the Assembly, Ajit Pawar is LOP (NCP).

The changing dynamic

With the Thackeray faction denouncing the ECI verdict and approaching the Supreme Court, which will give it a hearing today (Wednesday), MLC Anil Parab said that the whip of the Shinde-led group is not applicable to them.

"The ECI, while giving two symbols to both factions, had accepted that these are different groups. We are a group other than Shinde so there is no provision in law to force us to accept their (Shinde’s) whip," said Parab.

Moreover, the Uddhav camp’s strength in the Legislative Council is intact as no member has left the fold and joined Shinde. The alliance partners of Uddhav’s camp – the NCP and Congress – are also with him and agree over Danave as LOP. As a result, there is no political reason that Danave would step down.