Mumbai, February 22 – The Mahayuti and the opposition are set to clash on several issues, including the death of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar in a plane crash, mounting debt of the government, and the impact of the Indo-US deal on farmers, during the state legislature's budget session, starting Monday.
This will be the first legislative session in Maharashtra's history where both the assembly and legislative council will not have a Leader of the Opposition (LoP).
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is scheduled to present the state budget for the 2026-27 financial year on March 6, replacing Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who died in a plane crash last month.
This will be the first legislative session for Pawar's wife and newly-appointed Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar.
On Sunday, the opposition boycotted the customary tea party hosted by Fadnavis, claiming that the state government had not expressed any regret over the potential impact of the Indo-US trade deal on cotton growers and fishermen from Maharashtra.
However, the opposition camp faced embarrassment when leaders of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) skipped the Mahavikas Aghadi meeting, citing prior commitments.
Shiv Sena (UBT) downplayed the absence of the ally, attributing it to "a communication gap."
However, the timing raised eyebrows, as the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has asserted its "first right" to the opposition alliance's lone winnable Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra in the upcoming elections.
Addressing a press conference, Fadnavis said the state government has requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to order a CBI investigation into the plane crash that killed NCP chief Ajit Pawar last month.
He said the month-long session will see the introduction of 15 bills.
The chief minister announced that he would seek to implement the ideas and suggestions of the late Pawar.
"Late Pawar had allocated Rs 500 crore for an AI mission for farmers," Fadnavis said, adding that 30 lakh farmers had registered on the app developed under the initiative.
The opposition said it would aggressively raise issues like farmer suicides in the state, protests against the Shaktipeeth Highway project, and the implementation of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme.
The government is likely to face scrutiny over mounting debt and populist schemes during the month-long session.
The upcoming Rajya Sabha elections will be held during the session, testing the unity among the Maha Vikas Aghadi constituents, namely the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and the NCP (SP).
Sena (UBT) leader Bhaskar Jadhav said he had personally spoken to senior NCP (SP) leaders Jayant Patil, Rohit Pawar, and Jitendra Awhad regarding the MVA meeting.
Jadhav said the NCP (SP) leaders had conveyed that prior commitments would delay their arrival in Mumbai.
"There was also a communication gap, but we are all together," he insisted, attempting to quell speculation of discord within the opposition alliance.
He said the opposition decided to boycott the tea party as the ruling party is arrogant and shows little respect towards the opposition.
Another reason to decline the invite was the Maharashtra government's "ambiguous stand" on the death of Ajit Pawar in a plane accident, Jadhav added.
The absence of NCP (SP) leaders from the MVA meeting prompted Fadnavis to question the Opposition’s unity.
He said the signature of a former MLA from NCP (SP) appeared on the memorandum submitted to him.
The chief minister added that the opposition’s memorandum was riddled with grammatical errors and appeared to be a copy-paste of newspaper articles.
Targeting the government, Jadhav alleged that before the 2024 assembly elections, the government had disbursed Rs 1,500 per month to women under the Mazi Ladki Bahin scheme without any verification and "bought votes."
"Later, the government declared more than 50 lakh women ineligible on trivial grounds. And now, many women will not receive the allowance because they have not completed e-KYC," he told reporters.
Congress legislative party leader Vijay Wadettiwar said 22 farmers had died by suicide in Yavatmal, while 76 had ended their lives in the Marathwada region, alleging that the state government had done nothing about it.
He also criticised the state government over the memoranda of understanding signed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, pointing out that many of the companies were located in Maharashtra itself, and some did not have sufficient capital.
The Opposition will demand a white paper on the matter, he said.
He also claimed that 1,57,000 women and girls were missing in Maharashtra.
Satej Patil, leader of the Congress in the legislative council, stated that nearly 70 lakh youths had registered themselves as unemployed in the state.
He also criticised the Rs 1.02 lakh crore Shaktipeeth Mahamarg project, saying it was unnecessary and that nobody had asked for it, yet the state was pushing it.
According to political observers, even though the government has reiterated its commitment to transforming Maharashtra into a one-trillion-dollar economy, sustaining capital expenditure while containing fiscal deficit will require a balancing act.
Significant allocations are expected for inter-city connectivity projects, including the Pune-Nashik high-speed rail corridor, expansion of metro rail networks, development around the proposed Vadhvan Port in Palghar district and the Mumbai water metro project.
