Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat has accused the BJP-led government of providing rebel MLAs from the Shiv Sena and NCP huge developmental grants, apparently to appease the defected lot. He threatened to move court if other party MLAs were not treated likewise.

Speaking in the Assembly, Thorat said while the selected MLAs, who could not be made ministers, and others who need to be held back from returning to their original parties, were obliged; stalled works worth Rs 2,000 crore were ignored in the supplementary demands of Rs 41,000 crore. Thorat read out the individual amounts the MLAs had been granted, but did not name the legislators. Interestingly, most of the 106 MLAs of the BJP were also ignored, he said.