Ugly scuffle between Shinde faction MLA and NCP lawmaker breaks out on the steps of Maharashtra Legislature

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Mumbai: An unseemly ugly scruffle broke out between an MLA from the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition and a legislator from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on the steps of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

A fracas ensued after legislators belonging to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the NCP, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Congress protested against the ruling Shinde-BJP coalition by displaying a garland of carrots to signify that the new government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis were ignoring the plight of farmers whose crops had been ravaged by heavy rains in the State.

This led to tension between the ruling and opposition parties with the Shinde faction MLAs attempting to snatch carrots from the protesting opposition leaders. Amid the chaos, rebel Sena MLA Mahesh Shinde (from Koregaon in Satara district) nearly came to body blows with NCP MLC Amol Mitkari. A heated exchange ensued between the two leaders who had to be restrained by their respective party members.

The embattled MVA have been cornering the Shinde-Fadnavis government since the start of the monsoon session of the State Legislature on August 17, with their MLAs particularly targeting the 50 rebel MLAs of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s camp.

Every morning, before the start of the session, the MVA legislators have been raising slogans against the Shinde camp like “50 khoke (Rs 50 crore), ekdum ok” (everything is alright) and “Aala Re, Aala Re, Gaddaar Aala (Here come the traitors)”.

The slogans allude to the recent intra-party revolt led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other rebel Shiv Sena MLAs in June this year, which split the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena while toppling the erstwhile MVA government. This led the Uddhav faction to brand the rebel MLAs as “traitors” who had “sold out to the BJP.”

However, today morning, the steps leading to the main entrance of the Maharashtra Assembly were occupied by the ruling Sena (Shinde faction)-BJP MLAs who protested against the alleged slip-ups of the previous MVA government. This saw a counter-protest by the MVA lawmakers which led to the subsequent scuffle.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said it was strange that the ruling Shinde faction should react so violently to the opposition slogans, while claiming that the MVA’s sloganeering had irked the Shinde faction.

Pawar further remarked, “When we were the ruling government, the BJP MLAs staged intense protests against us, but we never responded in such a fashion or came to blows with them.”

Condemning the behaviour of the Shinde-camp MLAs for creating such a ruckus, NCP Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, in a series of tweets, questioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah as to why MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction were “openly threatening MVA legislators” and “making violent statements against them.”

In her tweets, where she tagged Shah and Fadnavis, Sule – the MP from the Pawar stronghold of Baramati – urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to “take action against those (Shinde camp MLAs) running the government in coalition with the BJP.”

Remarking that “Maharashtra’s political culture had been lowered by today’s scuffle,” Sule further demanded that MVA legislators be accorded ‘Z plus’ security while drily remarking that “Fadnavis, as State Home Minister, ought to teach law and democratic values to MLAs of the Shinde faction.”

Speaking to reporters after the scuffle, Mitkari hit out against rebel Sena MLA Mahesh Shinde, accusing him of using unparliamentary language in front of reporters, some of whom were women.

Mitkari remarked, “Instead of addressing the problems of farmers and rising farmer suicides, these MLAs (of the Shinde camp) are demonstrating their muscle power. Today, farmers are hit hard because of the rains. Their farmlands have been utterly decimated. In Yavatmal, a farmer took his life with a live wire. The pressing need of the hour is the declaration of a wet drought by the ruling government, and not the start of such a squabble in front of the Assembly.”