Maharashtra: Budget session could turn stormy as Opposition senses opportunity

Ready with full of ammunition, the Opposition is all set to attack the ruling parties in the budget session starting from Monday. The first budget session of the Shinde-Fadnavis government could be a stormy one. Opposition parties are seeing the opportunity in this session to set the narrative against the government. Also, there is buzz that local body elections including BMC would happen in April- May this year. So, both the sides will use all the days to do political scores against each other.

Maharashtra legislative houses will meet from Monday. The new Governor Ramesh Bais will address the joint house of both assembly and council members to start the budget session. As the governor is new to the state, Opposition parties are expecting not to go aggressive during his speech. There is buzz that the governor's speech will have some special praise for the Shinde-Fadnavis government during his speech.

State's budget will be presented on 9th March. The Shinde-Fadnavis government has not included the minister of state yet. Generally, Ministers of State for Finance read the budget speech in the legislative council. So, who will read the budget in council is yet to be decided. Meanwhile, DCM and Finance Minister Devendra Fadnavis will present the budget for the first time. There is buzz that ahead of local body elections, this budget will be full of populist announcements.

Apart from this, there are multiple issues which would come to focus in this session. The falling prices of onions and cotton, huge stock of sugar lying in mills, prolonged issues of state's public service exams, government recruitments, inflation, unemployment as well as various incidents of law and order would be the hot issues in this session. The tense relationship between Uddhav camp and Shinde camp will be another point that would be seen closely during the session.

The issues like huge unspent budget from 2021-2022 finance plan is also the topic of concerns of MLAs. As the fiscal year is coming to end, the ruling members would try to use the budget session to pressurise the government to use the unspent fund into their constituencies. Also, there is disturbance within MLAs of Shinde camp over delay in cabinet expansion. Whether it could turn serious also needs to be seen.