Amid Sena row, Maharashtra budget session to be stormy

The high pitched political and legal war between rival Shiv Sena groups will find an echo in the Maharashtra assembly when a stormy Budget session starts on February 27.

The Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, boosted by the Election Commission ruling in its favour, and the Uddhav Thackeray faction are locked in a bitter feud to lay claim over the 56-year-old party founded by the late Bal Thackeray.

Going by the legislative majority, the poll panel last week allotted the Sena name and “bow and arrow” symbol to the Shinde group while recognising the split in the party in June last year.

Moving swiftly, the Shinde camp took control of the Sena legislature party office in the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Mumbai. The Shinde camp feels that the whip it issues will be binding on legislators still loyal to Thackeray.

Sena row

Amid the Sena row, the Speaker said on Thursday he has not got representation from any group claiming to be a separate party in the Lower House.

The Speaker told PTI that there is only one Shiv Sena with 55 MLAs which is led by Shinde. MLA Bharat Gogawale has been recognised its chief whip.

However, senior advocate and former Maharashtra Advocate General Shrihari Aney feels that since the Election Commission has recognised a split in the Shiv Sena, the Shinde camp’s whip will not be applicable to pro-Thackeray MLAs.

The Thackeray faction will have to seek recognition as a separate group in the legislature, he said.

The budget session will start new Governor Ramesh Bais making his first address to the legislature.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the finance and planning portfolio, will present the first Budget of the Shinde-led government in the Assembly on March 9.

The session will end on March 25.

By-elections

The results of the Kasba Peth and Chinchwad Assembly byelection in Pune district, will find an echo in the House.

Polling in the two seats, won by the BJP in 2019, will be held on February 26 and results will be announced on March 2.

The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), consisting of the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Shiv Sena of Thackeray, will seek to corner the government over issues of public interest during the budget session.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)