Shiv Sena, Opposition meet to corner BJP government

Mumbai: For the first time since the inception of the Devendra Fadnavis government, Shiv Sena ministers participated in a meeting at Vidhan Bhavan on Wednesday with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders like to decide on a strategy to push for their loan waiver demand. The meeting went on for almost twenty minutes. Sources confirmed to The Asian Age that the leaders were discussing their strategy on the loan waiver issue as well as how to coordinate better in the House.

On Wednesday morning, Sena ministers Eknath Shinde, Diwakar Raote and Ramdas Kadam met Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil as well as NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil and Dilip Walse Patil. All three parties have been demanding a complete loan waiver to farmers and both Houses of state legislature couldn’t functioned from last week. Though the Sena is a partner in the state government with the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), it is sulking after the bitter campaign between both saffron parties in the recent municipal elections. Sena has been trying to corner the Fadnavis government on the loan waiver.

As per sources, in the meeting Mr Ramdas Kadam said, “Uddhavji has given us clear instructions about the loan waiver issue. We will not back-track on our demand.”     

Meanwhile, before this meeting Assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade addressed meeting with all party’s group leaders as well as the chief minister and Opposition Leaders. “We want the government to declare a loan waiver. It is government’s lookout from where they pulled money for this,” said Mr Vikhe Patil, the Opposition leader, after the meeting.

After holding a meeting with Mr Fadnavis, Shiv Sena is likely to withdraw the ongoing agitation for the loan waiver in the state legislature. The functioning of the legislature has been stalled for the past one week over the loan waiver issue, which was first raised by Congress and NCP before the Shiv Sena joined in. However, Shiv Sena said that it would make the demand without disrupting the house proceedings.

On the first day of the week, the House resumed on Wednesday but Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena pressed for its demands. Both the Houses of the legislature were adjourned without conducting any proceedings. The Opposition remained firm on the loan waiver demand and asked that it be included it in the budget to be presented on Saturday by the state government.