Maharashtra Congress has issued a notice to its MLA and legislative party leader Vijay Wadettiwar, inquiring why he and other party MLAs did not speak up against the public security bill when it was approved in the Assembly. The party has issued a note to its legislators directing them to argue against the bill; however, not only Congress MLAs, but Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP SP legislators, too, preferred to remain silent in the House. CPI(M) MLA Vinod Nikole was the only person in the 288-member Assembly who raised his hand against the bill and asked the speaker to note his voice as dissent.
BJP assigns issues to leaders to comment on
The BJP, known for its ‘micro-planning’, is doing the same in Maharashtra with an aim to expand its voter base and garner ideological support. The party has allocated specific issues to its leaders, directing, when the need arises to make a comment before the media over the issue, only the leader assigned to the matter should speak. As part of the excercise, minister Nitesh Rane and MLA Gopichand Padalkar have been reportedly assigned to speak on communal issues with an agenda to consolidate the BJP’s Hindu vote bank, while MLA Atul Bhatkalkar has been asked to target the Pawars and Thackerays. MLC Chitra Wagh and others have been tasked to defend CM Fadnavis when he is targetted.
‘LoP writes to CM about not getting facilities’
The Maharashtra assembly has a rich and long tradition of producing great orators and diligent legislators committed to upholding House rules. Presently, however, the Assembly is not exactly proceeding by the book. Earlier, in both Houses, only three or four ‘Lakshvedis’ (attention motions) were presented by the respective legislators and discussions would proceed around them, eliciting satisfactory answers and solutions too. So, the attention motion would get the deserved ‘attention’. But presently, in each House, nearly 20 Lakshvedis are tabled. Thus, there is little scope for proper discussion on any of the motions, leaving MLAs unhappy as they got no proper reply or resolution to their matters.
Sudhir Suryawanshi
Our correspondent in Maharashtra
suryawanshi.sudhir@gmail.com