Maharashtra legislature's monsoon session likely to be stormy

Buoyant after their staggering victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Maharashtra's opposition BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will be all set to corner the ruling Congress-NCP in the monsoon session of the legislature starting here Monday.

The session is also crucial as it will be the final one before the state goes in for assembly elections around October and the ruling Democratic Front combine will present the last budget of its third consecutive term in power since 1999.

The session would be a critical litmus test for the political future of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party and its top leaders as both the parties were virtually wiped out in the Lok Sabha elections, only securing two and four seats respectively of the state's 48 parliamentary seats, with the rest going to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance.

The upbeat opposition alliance is confident of repeating its performance in the assembly election and a hot competition has erupted over who would be projected as the next chief ministerial candidate, on the lines of the successful "(Narendra) Modi as PM" strategy.

A lot of noise is expected during the fortnight-long session as the opposition would raise the government's track record on several sensitive issues including growing atrocities against Dalits and other deprived sections of society, rapes and sexual abuse, and increased crimes which directly hit the common man.

There are other issues like the irrigation department scam and the report of the expert committee headed by Madhav Chitale which is likely to be tabled as well as the recent financial mess afflicting the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank in which several politicians allegedly figure.

The opposition could exploit the discontent among the trading community over the Local Body Tax and the issue of toll tax for road users in the state.

Though the state government has promised policy initiatives on these two issues, no concrete steps have been taken so far.