The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on Sunday skipped the customary tea party/meeting thrown by the Maharashtra Chief Minister on the eve of the monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislature, citing several failures of the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP administration. The leaders of the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, and the Sharad Pawar-Supriya Sule-led NCP met in Mumbai and decided not to accept the Chief Minister's invitation. They also emphasised the instability of the government by pointing out that it has not yet established a full-fledged ministry, news agency PTI reported.
In preparation for the Monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde along with Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar attended the tea party in Mumbai, ANI reported.
Balasaheb Thorat, the chairman of the Congress parliamentary party, and Jayant Patil, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, attended a meeting that was convened by Shiv Sena (UBT) member and Leader of the Opposition in the parliamentary Council Ambadas Danve.
Notably, Ajit Pawar of the NCP, who previously held the office, recently resigned and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition as deputy chief minister. As a result, the position of leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly is currently empty.
Speaking with reporters, Uddhav faction leader and MLA Sunil Raut says, "We will boycott the customary tea party (organised by the government ahead of Monsoon Session). People are confused as to who is the CM- Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis or Ajit Pawar... There are only two brands in Maharashtra, one is the Thackeray brand and the other is the Sharad Pawar brand."
“We have decided to boycott the high tea invitation of the state government as it has failed to solve the woes of people on several fronts. This government's validity on Constitutional norms is already in question," Danve was quoted by PTI in its report.
He said that the administration seems to have adopted a strategy of "misusing" investigation agencies in order to put pressure on the Opposition and force them to either join the government or suffer harassment and false accusations.
“We are seeing a gory picture of democracy in Maharashtra as several Constitutional norms are disregarded. The chief minister of Maharashtra himself is facing disqualification,” Danve said.
He said that the state's industrial development is behind because several projects that could have only been implemented in Maharashtra have been transferred to other states. "On the other hand, the refinery project in Ratnagiri district is being pushed without the consent of local people,” Danve alleged.
(With Inputs From Agencies)