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HomePoliticsAfter Congress-NCP truce, Maharashtra could see stronger opposition in budget session

After Congress-NCP truce, Maharashtra could see stronger opposition in budget session

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The estranged allies have decided to work out their differences in a bid to combat the BJP, and the first test will be on the floor of the state legislature.

Mumbai: The first signs of an improvement in the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) ties in Maharashtra may be seen in the upcoming budget session of the state legislature beginning Monday. Leaders from both parties are batting for better floor coordination amid an attempt to repair their splintered alliance.

Leaders from both parties are planning a coordinated effort to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, over issues such as farmers’ distress, the 1 January violence at Bhima-Koregaon, and the need for a white paper on finances with the state’s debt rising.

NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare told ThePrint: “We have come to the conclusion that we have to join hands and work together now. There is no other option. With both parties now positive about this, the differences between us on the floor of the legislature too will be minimised.”

The parties held a meeting Sunday to chalk out the strategy for the upcoming legislative session.

Resurrecting the relationship

The Congress and the NCP decided to go their separate ways before the 2014 state assembly elections due to differences over seat sharing.

Relations between the two parties worsened after the polls, in which the Congress won 42 and the NCP 41 seats, with the latter extending outside support to the BJP to form the state government. Floor coordination during legislative sessions too remained weak, with Congress leaders often raising questions on whether the NCP was covertly working with the BJP on certain issues.

In March 2015, the NCP even ousted the Congress’s Shivajirao Deshmukh as legislative council chairman by passing a no-trust vote against him, and got the party’s Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar elected to the post with the BJP’s help.

A senior Congress legislator who did not wish to be named said: “Until now, the NCP has cooperated with us in the house only when the issue was suitable for the party. A number of times, NCP leaders in the upper house have staged consistent walkouts on issues such as reservation for the Dhangar community.

“Congress legislators were just forced to follow each time, because in the upper house the NCP has the numbers. But, NCP leaders never followed through with any serious issue to its meaningful conclusion, raising doubts about their leanings.”

He, however, added that the NCP’s leaning now seems to have changed and there’s more hope of coordination in the upcoming session.

NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad added: “What has happened has happened. We have to learn a lot of lessons from history. Small mistakes have cost both parties a lot, and the situation is worsening by the day. The need of the hour is now for like-minded parties, for secular forces like ours, to come together.”

A new understanding

While formal seat-sharing issues are yet to be addressed, the NCP and Congress have in principle agreed to re-forge their alliance, and have had two rounds of meetings in the past 20 days. Senior state leaders from both parties discussed joining hands for polls to about ten legislative council seats that will fall vacant between May and July.

The two parties also plan to contest the upcoming bypolls to the Lok Sabha constituencies of Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar together.

Moreover, NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s statement about the Congress being the only alternative to the BJP and his praise for Congress president Rahul Gandhi during the public interview with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray in Pune injected fresh enthusiasm in Congress-NCP talks.

Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt said: “The political environment has been changing at the national as well as the state level, and the NCP has been witnessing this change. What Pawar said is fact, and the NCP’s stance is clearer – that it is keen on a consolidation of secular forces.

“While the high command of both parties will work on the details, this will definitely help in better floor management.”

Concerted attack on govt

The opposition plans to launch its attack on the BJP-led government by alleging the state’s failure to tackle agrarian distress, the ineffectiveness of its farm loan waiver, a high number of farmers’ suicides despite the waiver, and the treatment meted out to Dharma Patil, an 84-year-old Dhule farmer who committed suicide at the state government headquarters Mantralaya in Mumbai.

The Congress and NCP will also raise the issue of the government’s alleged failure in the Bhima-Koregaon caste violence on 1 January, when one person died and several others were injured. They plan to corner the government on why the two accused persons have not been arrested yet.

Besides, the parties are planning to demand a white paper on the state’s finances, with the debt having breached the Rs 4 lakh crore mark. The state government has maintained that its debt-to-GDP ratio is well within norms and is not a major concern.

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