As the Winter Session of the Maharashtra legislature got underway in Nagpur on Monday, a fierce tussle unfolded between the erstwhile ruling Democratic Front (DF) partners — Congress and NCP — over the leader of the Opposition’s post in the State Assembly.
Both the Congress and NCP have staked a claim for the loP’s post in the State Assembly, following the resignation from the post by Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, who put in his papers on Friday last hours before he was inducted into the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet.
In the normal course, the Congress — which a strength of 42 MlAs in the Assembly as against the NCP’s MlA tally of 41 — would have been the rightful claimant for the loP’s post.
However, the Congress’ effective strength in the House has now come down to 37, following the suspension of five party MlAs for allegedly elbowing and preventing the entry of Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao inside the Vidhan Bhavan premises during the protests witnessed outside the State legislature building against the controversial confidence vote won by the BJP Government on November 12.
On its part, the NCP has made an issue of the reduced strength of the Congress in the House to stake a claim for the leader of Opposition’s post.