Congress-NCP likely to feel the heat in Maharashtra Assembly

Winter session to begin on Monday in Nagpur

Buoyed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s sweeping victory in four states, the opposition BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra has geared up to take on the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine government during the two-week winter session of the state legislature, starting from Monday.

Leaders of opposition Eknath Khadse and Vinod Tawde on Sunday declared that they would target Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for allegedly shielding the corrupt ministers in his council of ministers and also for the government's apathy to deal with the issues of corruption and malpractices. At the same time, the Sena-BJP alliance, joined by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are prepared to grill the government on the multi-crore irrigation scam, fodder scam and the government's alleged inaction in supplying relief packages to flood-hit farmers, especially in the under-developed Vidarbha region.

This is the last winter session of the present state Assembly and both ruling and opposition members have submitted maximum questions and calling attention motions to be discussed in both houses.

On top of it, the opposition is totally displeased with the government's inability to put in place a procedure to expedite the redevelopment of slums and old and dilapidated buildings in Mumbai. They will target the government on its mishandling of the Campa Cola issue, though the Supreme Court has given time till May 31 to vacate the homes.

Khadse and Tawde criticised the government's dilly-dallying over the tabling of a two-member judicial commission’s report on the Adarsh housing society scam. They said that the opposition would press for its tabling with action against the concerned ministers and officials. Furthermore, Khadse and Tawde also indicated that the opposition would like the government to explain the present status of the permission sought by the Central Bureau of Investigation from the Maharashtra governor to initiate action against  former chief minister Ashok Chavan for his alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam.

On the other hand, legislative affairs minister Harshvardhan Patil said the government is ready to counter the opposition on each and every issue through discussion in the legislature. He informed that the government would table the anti-superstition and black magic bill in the legislature. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan hoped that the bill would be passed during the winter session. Khadse and Tawde indicated that opposition would support the bill, provided certain issues are addressed by the government.