The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance has unanimously proposed the name of senior Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) legislator Bhaskar Jadhav for the post
CM Devendra Fadnavis addresses the media after the end of the Budget Session, on Wednesday. Pic/X
The appointment of the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly now rests with Speaker Rahul Narwekar.
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The Maharashtra Assembly Budget Session 2025 concluded on Wednesday. Addressing the media after the Maharashtra Assembly Budget Session 2025, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis responded to a query on when the appointment of leader of opposition will be announced. "It is up to the speaker when to announce the name of leader of opposition. If it is done tomorrow also, we have no objection to it," Fadnavis stated.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has made a claim for the coveted leader of the opposition post in the state legislative assembly. In fact, the party has given the name of senior legislator Bhaskar Jadhav to be appointed for the post. All the three major parties of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — the Congress, Nationalist Congress (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT) —has unanimously given the name of the candidate, and accordingly informed the speaker about it.
MVA claimed that there is no rule on what strength (numbers) the opposition should have in the assembly to claim the post. NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil, while speaking to media, in the Vidhan Bhavan premises, read out the list of the previous leaders of opposition from the assembly who were appointed on the post despite their respective parties having lesser number of MLAs. Some were from parties that had fewer MLAs than the current strength of the opposition in the house.
MVA also claimed that for the first time in the history of Maharashtra, it was the ruling party that was trying to create ruckus and stop the business of the house.
"Farmers' loan waiver was promised during the assembly poll campaign. But, now they [government] are saying they will have to verify whether a waiver can be given or not," Nana Patole, Congress leader, said.
Jitendra Awhad of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) alleged that non issues were being made into issues to divert attention from core issues such as unemployment, essential commodities' price hike, etc. "Aurangzeb, meat (halal or jhatka) were the issues raked during the session. But core issues were not discussed at all," he stated.
Echoing similar views, Jadhav said, "Nine bills were approved, but one needs to find how much time was given to discuss the same. The session was on for 16 days (147 hours). But, what was the time allocated for the constructive work and discussion of the Bills. He also expressed concern over the massive mandate that the ruling coalition has got which is now being used to drag the proceedings of the House.
Patil claimed that he has been in the assembly for the past 36 years. "I have seen a massive mandate for the Congress. But the Congress never behaved in this manner and dragged the business," he said, further adding that this session was only about "Kamra to Kabar", referring to the issues raked against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and Aurangzeb's tomb.
However, Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde dismissed MVA's claims. "The opposition was not interested in discussions. They only were seen at the entrance of the assembly shouting slogans against the government. But, never participated in actual business," Shinde said in a veiled reference to the Shiv Sena (UBT) camp.
Meanwhile, the CM made it clear that despite having a massive mandate, the proceedings of the assembly was done as per the norms. "The session time was not cut. We tried solving different issues through discussions," he stated. The CM also claimed that on an average, six-and-a-half hours of work is expected daily in the session, but this time the average daily time of the House was nine hours.
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