The Opposition NCP had its way in the Maharashtra legislative Council on Monday, as chairman Shivajiro Deshmukh formally appointed as its upcoming leader and late senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s estranged nephew Dhananjay Munde as the leader of Opposition in the Upper House of the State legislature.
Ending speculations over the issue, council chairman Shivajirao Deshmukh of the Congress made an announcement about the appointment of Dhananjay as the loP in the Upper House, two days ahead of the scheduled close of the Winter Session of the Maharashtra legislature in Nagpur.
Interestingly enough, the development came in the intense speculation within the erstwhile ruling Democratic Front (DF) partners’ camp that the NCP might give its claim over the loP’s post in the State Assembly, thus paving way for the appointment of the Congress’ Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil as the loP in the State Assembly.
“Since the Council chairman belonging our party has gone ahead and appointed Dhananjay Munde of the NCP as the loP in the Upper House, we expect our erstwhile partner to reciprocate our gesture, give up its claim over the loP’s post and support our candidate in the Assembly. We expect a formal announcement in the State Assembly tomorrow,” a senior State Congress functionary close to former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said in the evening.
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.