The Opposition Congress has convened a joint meeting of its MlAs and MlCs at Vidhan Bhavan here on Thursday, to elect its legislative party leaders in both the Houses of the Maharashtra legislature.
The Congress has appointed its group leader in lok Sabha, Malikarjuna Kharge, as a central observer for the elections to the posts of legislative party leaders in both the Assembly and Council.The Congress, which stands a bright chance of landing the leader of the Opposition’s (loP‘s) post in the State Assembly in the event of the Shiv Sena joining the BJP-led Government in the State, will in likelihood elect former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan as its leader in the State Assembly.
After the single largest party BJP (with 121 MlAs) which has been invited to prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly, the Shiv Sena has the maximum tally of 63 MlAs in the 288-member House, followed by the Congress (42), NCP (41) and 20 others. The others include one MlA from the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha which is a pre-poll ally of the BJP.With the Sena showing its intention to join the BJP-led Government, the next-in-line Congress foresees the prospect of getting the leader of the Opposition’s post.
Though there is some anger against him among sections of the party MlAs, Chavan looks poised to get elected as the Congress’ leader in the State Assembly and in the event of party getting the loP’s post, Chavan will take up the post.In the upper House, senior legislator and outgoing Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre may get elected as the party’s leader in the State legislative Council.
Unlike in the Assembly, it is unlikely that the Congress will loP’s post in the current 78-member Upper House, where NCP is the single largest party with 29 MlCs. The respective strengths of other parties in the Council are: Congress 21, BJP 9, Shiv Sena-6, lok Bharti, PWP and PRP one each and Independents-7.
Three vacancies have arisen in the Council, following the election of former chief minister Chavan, former leader of the Opposition Vinod Tawde and Ashish Shelar, both from the BJP, to the Assembly in the October polls.While Chavan was elected to the Assembly from his home constituency of Karad (south), Tawde and Shelar were elected to the lower House of the State legislature from Bandra (west) and Borivli respectively.In the normal circumstances, the NCP would have walked away with the loP’s post without any effort. However, with it having extended unsolicited support to the new BJP-led government in the state, the party will face an opposition from the Congress on this count.
Outgoing MPCC chief Manirao Thakre, himself a contender for the loP’s post in the event of the Congress getting the post, has questioned the “moral right” of the NCP to stake its claim on the loP’s post in the Council, in the backdrop of the fact that the Sharad Pawar-led party has thrown its weight behind the BJP.
Notwithstanding the moral issue that it faces, the NCP will ultimately land the loP’s post in the Council. In such an event, state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare – who was elected to the Council in August this year – will in likelihood be the leader of the Opposition in the Upper House.