Maharashtra Assembly may not have LoP for first time

Mumbai:For the first time, there may not be a leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly as no opposition party has managed to win at least 10 per cent of total seats. In the 288-member House, an opposition party is required to win at least 29 seats to get the post.

As per the settled practice, the leader of the largest opposition party having not less than one-tenth seats of the total strength of the Lok Sabha is recognised as the leader of the Opposition. However, the latest results and trends on the official Election Commision website suggest that no opposition party is going to get the required numbers.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) has emerged as the single largest party with 20 MLAs followed by Congress (15 MLAs) and NCP (SP) with 10 members in the lower House of the state Assembly.

Anant Kalse, former principal secretary of the Maharashtra Legislature, agreed that no opposition party has got enough MLAs to get the LoP post. “In Maharashtra Assembly, an opposition must have at last 28, if not 29, MLAs. It looks like Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) will fall short of that number. Even though they contested as an alliance, their cumulative number cannot be considered for the LoP post,” he said.

However, Mr. Kalse said that the absence of LoP will not affect the proceedings in the House. He added that all parties can elect their legislative party leader and they can work as a group leader.

Reacting to the results, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray asked what the Mahayuti alliance had done to deserve a “tsunami” of votes in Maharashtra. Addressing the media, Uddhav said, “I cannot believe that Maharashtra, the same state that stood by me and listened to me as the head of the family during the challenging times of Covid, would behave this way. We saw empty chairs in rallies held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. They did not even campaign in the last three-four days. We also saw people getting bored and leaving their rallies. But it appears that people had decided to vote for them even without listening to what they were saying.”