As the battle between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray is being fiercely fought in the Supreme Court, the next battleground for the both sides will be the budget session of Maharashtra legislative. Issues from sitting arrangements to Leader of Opposition post in legislative council as well as speech time for the Uddhav camp MLAs in Assembly will all be the issues of confrontation.
𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗖 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁
This is the first time both the camps come face to face after the Election Commission (EC) accepted the rights of Eknath Shinde on Shiv Sena as the party. Shiv Sena is the single party on the record of legislative houses. So, Uddhav camp MLAs sitting arrangement in Assembly will be a sensitive issue. Will the Speaker ask them to sit with Shinde camp MLAs i.e. at ruling side or allow them to sit as a group close to opposition benches will be an important question. "We will meet the Speaker and tell them that the case is going on in the Supreme Court. Till the time the sitting arrangement of both the groups shall be independent. I hope our request will be approved," said leader of opposition in assembly Ajit Pawar.
Shiv Sena has all three major posts in legislative council. Shinde as CM, Ambadas Danve as LOP and Neelam Gorhe as Deputy Chairman come from a single party. This is unprecedented. So, how treasury benches as well as the opposition side will deal with it is an important issue in council.
𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗱𝗱𝗵𝗮𝘃 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻'𝘀 𝗠𝗟𝗔 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲
Every party does get specific time for speeches on special discussion. In assembly, the issue will be complicated. Whether the speaker will allot Uddhav camp MLAs from opposition time or will it be included in Shivsena time, which is with Eknath Shinde, is also another sensitive question. This could also be an issue of confrontation between both sides if the speaker didn't allow the Uddhav camp to be a separate group.
The Shinde-Fadnavis government has faced two assembly sessions till now. First is the monsoon and another is winter. Both the sessions saw fierce political confrontation between both sides, inside houses as well as outside. Even CM Shinde was aggressive during both the sessions against Thackeray camp. In the last session, LOP Ajit Pawar even advised him not to waste time on political speeches and use CM post and tenure for the betterment of people. But, nobody is optimistic to predict that both sides will tone down for sometime to focus on legislative business. This is unlikely to happen.
