Month-Long Maharashtra Budget Session Begins Amid Bitter Sena vs Sena Feud; Shinde Camp Issues Whip

The high-decibel political faceoff between the two Shiv Sena factions in Maharashtra is all set to echo in the legislature with the onset of the Budget session in the state that kicked off today.

It is the first session after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s camp was given the Shiv Sena name and the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol for polling. According to the legislative majority, the EC recognised the party’s split last week. The move delivered a big jolt to the Uddhav Thackeray faction.

The two factions have been locked in a bitter feud to lay claim to the 56-year-old party and the legacy of its founder Bal Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has issued a whip to “all” its legislators to remain present full-time during the budget session of the Maharashtra legislature which began on Monday, in an apparent move to corner the faction headed by former CM Uddhav Thackeray.

Sena vs Sena in Maharashtra House

Amid the row, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar said on Thursday that he had not received 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 bShinde. Legislatoror Bharat Gogawale has been recognised as its chief whip.

Narvekar had already approved the appointment of Shinde as the legislature party leader.

According to Shrihari Aney, a senior advocate and former Maharashtra Advocate General, the Shinde camp’s whip will not apply to pro-Thackeray MLAs since the EC has acknowledged the split in the Shiv Sena.

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

During the nearly one-month long session, which is expected to be stormy, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which consists of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), will also seek to corner the Shinde-BJP government on public interest issues.

Maharashtra Budget Session

The budget session commenced with newly-appointed Governor Ramesh Bais making his first address to the joint sitting of the state legislature. The session will end on March 25.

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

The Number Game

Then rebel leader Eknath Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, 2022. He has yet to expand his Council of Ministers, which consists of 18 members who are all Cabinet members. Both the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have nine ministers in the Cabinet.

Going by the state Assembly strength of 288, Maharashtra can have a maximum of 42 ministers.

Apart from the Shinde-Thackeray feud, the results of Kasba Peth and Chinchwad Assembly bypolls in Pune district, necessitated by the death of sitting MLAs, will also find an echo in the legislature. Voting in the two Assembly seats, won by the BJP in 2019, was held on Sunday and results will be announced on March 2.

(With PTI Inputs)

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