AFTER winning the Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to dominate the proceedings of the Winter Session of the Maharashtra Assembly beginning December 7 in Nagpur. Though the BJP has two more parties as partners in the government, the victory has provided a new boost to its confidence. It has made the task of the already divided Maha Vikas Aaghadi (MVA) all the more challenging while cornering the government. Already, lack of enthusiasm is visible among the MVA constituents which is aptly reflected in the statement made by Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar that “There is hardly anything to do as the session has been curtailed to 10 days.”

 

As tradition goes, every major opposition party takes out morcha as a part of its show of strength during the Winter session of the State Legislature. However, till last week MVA did not plan a single morcha targeting the Government. After strong criticism in media, the Congress party decided to take out morcha on the first day of second week of the session. Similarly, the Yuva Sangharsh Morcha taken out by MLA Rohit Pawar of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) stretched its concluding day to December 12 to make it a part of session. It was supposed to end in the first week of December. MVA is now engaged in last-minute weak efforts to prove its effectiveness. The MVA partners also seem ill-prepared on countering Bills and resolutions to be discussed during the session. When ‘The Hitavada’ talked to some leaders of MVA constituents, they could not point out any particular issue that could corner the Eknath Shinde-led government.

 

The major issue that the Opposition is set to raise is of Maratha reservation. But there are differences among the partners on that issue too as MVA leaders from Vidarbha are fighting for OBC reservation. Recently there was a clash between their own leaders belonging to OBC community and the leaders belong to Maratha community. In the Congress party, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar, Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan are not on the same page. This agenda-less, stand-less MVA does not look like troubling the Government at all in the home town of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

 

This will be the last winter session of this legislature as State will be going for Assembly elections next year. According to political pundits, the helplessness by MVA is likely to reflect in polls too. On the other hand, BJP will be banking on the surging confidence acquired through thumping victories in the three State Assemblies. The confidence is set to help BJP dominate not only the opposition but also its own alliance partners, the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar group). Obviously with magic number of 105 BJP has raised its influence within its own alliance.