The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will ask voters in 80 assembly constituencies whether they want to once against repose trust in those who “sold their integrity, loyalty and trust” and defected through unfair means, Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said while participating in FPJ Dialogue on Wednesday.
“These defectors have crossed over for corruption. Their constituencies will be our focus,” said Chavan, who led the Congress-NCP government between 2010 and 2014.
In a freewheeling chat with the FPJ’s editorial team, he said the MVA will focus on inflation, unemployment, corruption and financial indiscipline in the run-up to the assembly election.
“I would say that the anti-defection law has become useless and, personally, I am of the opinion that it should be scrapped immediately. When it was enacted, senior parliamentarians such as Madhu Limaye had said this would make MPs and legislators slaves,” he said.
If the results of the general election are any indication, the MVA should get 183 seats in the assembly, Chavan said.
“In the Lok Sabha election, the MVA won 65% of the seats in Maharashtra – 30 out of 48. On that basis, it should win 183 seats in the assembly. I won’t predict the exact numbers, but out performance in the general election spoke volumes,” the Congress leader said.
Chavan called the state’s financial situation alarming. “The second budget was presented just for schemes such as Majhi Ladki Bahin. The first budget was presented in the month of February, before the Lok Sabha election. After presenting the second budget, supplementary demands of Rs97,000 crore were tabled. Later reports said that the road concretisation budget had shot up by Rs9,000 crore,” he said.
In short, the state will have to borrow Rs2.4 lakh crore in the near future if it wants to meet the expenses as committed, the former CM said. “There should have been a 3% gap between fiscal deficit and the state budget; it has now gone up to 5%. We are crossing the limit on borrowings.”
Maharashtra is ranked 11th when it comes to per capita income. The state has not shared vital data for the past one year with the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, he alleged.
Chavan alleged that approvals given by the Mahayuti government for roadworks were just for kickbacks. Even the cost of the Samruddhi Mahamarg is 40% higher compared to the 13 road corridors in Uttar Pradesh, he said. Asked about the incomplete Mumbai-Goa highway, Chavan alleged that not many people were aware of the exact alignment of the highway.
