Advocate General playing troubleshooter for Maharashtra govt, alleges Opposition

The Opposition alleged that Advocate General Shrihari Aney was playing troubleshooter for the state government as whenever the state got in trouble over drought issues, Mr Aney made controversial statements before or during the state legislature session to divert attention from real issues. The Opposition said Mr Aney made controversial remarks before the Nagpur winter session and again on Saturday when the budget session was underway and the Nagpur bench slammed the government over drought.

Referring to Mr Aney’s remarks about separate statehood for Vidarbha, NCP legislator and former deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar, told select mediapersons that Mr Aney always created controversy at the time of sessions of the state legislature.

Mr Pawar said that on December 6 last year, he had made similar comments with the winter session having to begin on December 8. The Opposition had planned to corner the ruling government over drought and failure of the Fadnavis government, however the first few days of the session got washed out in the Aney issue. “Again, as the budget session is going on and the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court has slammed the state government for not including villages from Vidarbha region in drought-affected area. We have decided to be aggressive in the House but suddenly, Mr Aney demanded a separate Marathwada and the first day of the second week got washed out in the Aney issue,” said Mr Pawar.

Leader of Opposition in the state council, Dhananjay Munde, echoed these sentiments and said that according to floor management of NCP, they had to raise the issue of the Nagpur bench’s order. Mr Munde said that even they had a strategy to bring pressure on the government and make them include more than 4,000 villages in the drought-affected region however, whenever the government came into trouble, Mr Aney made the statement and the business of the house was diverted. “Is Mr Aney playing the role of troubleshooter for chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ” Mr Pawar questioned. He said that as the CM always backed Mr Aney, he thought that this time too, he would do the same.