The Budget session of the Maharashtra Legislature beginning on Monday will be the first in the state’s history without a Leader of Opposition (LoP) in both the Assembly and the Assembly.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has termed the development a “threat to democratic norms”, arguing that the absence of safeguards in both houses weakens institutional checks and balances at a time when the ruling BJP-led Bhayoti Party enjoys a commanding majority.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday described the LJD’s position rejection as a “disgrace on democracy”, claiming that the Opposition’s constitutional role in holding the government to account was being undermined.
This vacancy has persisted since the 2024 General Assembly elections, in which no opposition party crossed the traditional 10 percent threshold required for party recognition.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Bhaskar Jadhav accused the ruling coalition of arrogance and deliberately weakening democratic processes by not facilitating LoP appointments to either house.
Jadhav said he had written to the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan administration and followed up with it to seek clarification on any rule or legislation governing appointment of MPs in the Assembly, but was informed that there was no specific legal provision.
He also pointed out that in the past, parties with single-digit MLAs were given the position of LoP, while the Shiv Sena (UBT), despite having 20 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly, was denied the position.
When Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was asked about this, he told reporters: “This decision is the prerogative of the Assembly Speaker and the Assembly Speaker. I cannot comment on it.”
The situation in the 78-member Legislative Council was further complicated by the resignation of Congress MLC Pradnya Satav in December last year, which dashed the party’s hopes of claiming the LoP post in the Senate.
Pradnya Satav, widow of late Congress MP Rajeev Satav, resigned on December 18 last year, before formally joining the BJP in the presence of CM Fadnavis. Her turnaround came a year after the BJP-led Mahayoti alliance’s landslide victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Before her exit, the Congress had eight MLAs, which was equivalent to the 10 per cent quota required to claim the LoP post. The party nominated senior leader Satej Patel for this role. However, her resignation reduced the party’s strength to seven, making its claim untenable.
Former state Congress president Nana Patuli alleged that inducements and promises of positions were used to engineer defections and destabilize opposition parties, describing the Pradnya Satav switch as part of a broader ‘Operation Lotus’ strategy by the ruling alliance.
Satav, who was renominated to the Assembly in July 2024 for a six-year term ending in 2030, cited the development agenda of the Mahuti government under Fadnavis as the reason for her joining the BJP.
