MUMBAI: A two-day winter session of the Maharashtra legislature, starting here from Monday, will focus on passage of supplementary demands and see tabling of bills related to the Shakti Act that aims to curb crime against women and children with strict provisions, including the death penalty.
The opposition BJP will seek to corner the Shiv Sena- led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with a leader saying on Friday the party will raise issues related to COVID-19 "mismanagement" and inadequate relief to flood and cyclone-hit hit farmers.
The brief session, curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is being held against the backdrop of the MVA government completing a year in office and its encouraging performance in the just held elections to half-a-dozen seats of the Legislative Council (one of them bypoll).
MVA constituents won four of the six seats of the Upper House.
The BJP won the council seat in Dhule-Nandurbar local bodies by-election, necessitated due to the switching over of sitting Congress MLC Amrish Patel to the BJP.
Patel, fielded by the BJP, won the seat.
The Congress and the NCP, both allies of the Shiv Sena, bagged two Council seats each.
In a setback to the BJP, the party lost the Nagpur graduates' constituency to the Congress and the Pune graduates' segment to the NCP.
The Congress won the Pune teachers' constituency, while the NCP retained the Aurangabad graduates' seat.
An independent won the Amravati teachers' seat.
MVA leaders described the results as an endorsement of the government and its policies by the "educated middle-class" (graduates and teachers were voters in the Dec 1 polls).
On the other hand, the BJP said it failed to gauge the combined strength of the MVA.
However, the BJP has said the election defeat will not deter it from taking on the government on "failure" to provide relief to farmers affected due to cyclone, heavy rains and floods and "mismanagement" of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A BJP leader said Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths among states and this reflects a lack of disease management.
Farmers are yet to get relief for the destruction caused to their crops by floods, cyclone and heavy rains in different parts of the state since June, he said.
On the other hand, the MVA government has announced a package of Rs 10,000 crore as relief for those affected by floods and heavy rains.
Besides taking up condolence motion, the session will see passage of supplementary demands and tabling of bills related to the proposed Shakti Act, official sources said.
On Wednesday, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said two bills will be tabled in the legislature - the Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 2020 and the Special Court & Machinery for Implementation of Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law, 2020 - to give shape to the law against perpetrators of crime against women and kids.
The bills, cleared by the cabinet, have tough provisions like the death penalty and heavy fines.
Usually, the winter session of the legislature is held in Nagpur, the second capital of the state, and spans two weeks.
This will be the second time that the winter session of the legislature is being held in Mumbai - the first one being in 2018 when the BJP was in power in the state.