State legislature to see a stormy winter session

The two-week winter session at Nagpur of Maharashtra’s legislature begins on Monday and is expected to see a lot of din.

Opposition parties are likely to disrupt the proceedings on the issue of the inconvenience caused after the Centre’s withdrawal of high value currency notes. District co-operative banks and agricultural co-operative societies facing a liquidity crunch.

Malnutrition deaths, the Maratha community’s reservation demand and falling prices of agricultural produce are expected to pit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance against the others.

However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is currently on a good wicket, with his BJP’s good performance in the recent elections to the 164 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, termed a ‘mini assembly poll’. The performance has also silenced rivals and critics within the BJP. And, for now, at the usually critical Shiv Sena. He has already offered to continue the alliance with the Sena in the ensuing election to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation and other civic bodies (slated for February-March next year.

The opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party will attack the government on the dip in cotton prices to Rs 4,800 a quintal and in soyabean to Rs 2,700 a quintal. Also, on the government's intent regarding reservation to the Maratha community, a third of the population. It has been a ticklish issue for long and the government is in the midst of preparing a comprehensive affidavit to the high court on the subject.

A rise in crime figures are another topic the opposition intends to press. Subhash Deshmukh, minister for co-operatives, and Vishnu Savra, minister for tribal affairs, have also got into a controversy. Cash of Rs 91 lakh was recovered from a car in Osmanabad which belongs to Deshmukh’s Lok Mangal group. There are allegations of corruption in Savra’s department over purchase of sweaters for students.