Even though the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners have not yet formally laid claim to the Leader of Opposition (LoP) seat in the Maharashtra Assembly, a senior partner in the alliance on Monday suggested that the cabinet-level slot be shared by all the three partner parties.
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MLA Jitendra Awhad proposed sharing the post of LoP among NCP (SP), Congress, and Shiv Sena (UBT), with each one of them having it for 18 months.
Awhad feels that sharing the leadership will have all three parties represented equally in the state assembly, which met for its budget session in Mumbai on Monday.
"Our suggestion is that the LoP post rotates among the three parties every 18 months so that each has a chance to project itself in the assembly. We need to stay together as a strong opposition. This is the NCP (SP) stand," the ex-state minister said.
He added that senior leaders from all three parties would sit and discuss and decide the issue collectively.
The Thane MLA, however, asserted Shiv Sena (UBT) ought to be the first to take up the mantle since it boasts the most MLAs (20) from among the opposition parties in the 288-strong assembly.
Last week, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut declared that his party would claim the LoP seat. Shiv Sena (UBT) has the largest opposition in terms of numbers, followed by Congress with 16 MLAs and NCP (SP) with 10. But none of the parties have made the claim officially.
Conventionally, an opposition party must have at least 10% of the total (28 seats) to occupy the LoP position.
But Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Bhaskar Jadhav contradicted that there is no constitutional provision that stipulates the 10% seat requirement. "There is no law or constitutional provision that mentions this criterion," Jadhav claimed.
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