Up to speaker to decide when to announce name of leader of opposition: CM

The appointment of the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly now rests with Speaker Rahul NarwekarThe Maharashtra Assembly Budget Session 2025 concluded on Wednesday Addressing the media after the Maharashtra Assembly Budget Session 2025 Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis responded to a query on when the appointment of leader of opposition will be announced It is up to the speaker when to announce the name of leader of opposition If it is done tomorrow also we have no objection to it Fadnavis statedShiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has made a claim for the coveted leader of the opposition post in the state legislative assembly In fact the party has given the name of senior legislator Bhaskar Jadhav to be appointed for the post All the three major parties of the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA mdash the Congress Nationalist Congress Sharadchandra Pawar and Shiv Sena UBT mdashhas unanimously given the name of the candidate and accordingly informed the speaker about itMVA claimed that there is no rule on what strength numbers the opposition should have in the assembly to claim the post NCP SP leader Jayant Patil while speaking to media in the Vidhan Bhavan premises read out the list of the previous leaders of opposition from the assembly who were appointed on the post despite their respective parties having lesser number of MLAs Some were from parties that had fewer MLAs than the current strength of the opposition in the houseMVA also claimed that for the first time in the history of Maharashtra it was the ruling party that was trying to create ruckus and stop the business of the houseFarmers loan waiver was promised during the assembly poll campaign But now they government are saying they will have to verify whether a waiver can be given or not Nana Patole Congress leader saidJitendra Awhad of the Sharad Pawarled NCP SP alleged that non issues were being made into issues to divert attention from core issues such as unemployment essential commodities price hike etc Aurangzeb meat halal or jhatka were the issues raked during the session But core issues were not discussed at all he statedEchoing similar views Jadhav said Nine bills were approved but one needs to find how much time was given to discuss the same The session was on for 16 days 147 hours But what was the time allocated for the constructive work and discussion of the Bills He also expressed concern over the massive mandate that the ruling coalition has got which is now being used to drag the proceedings of the HousePatil claimed that he has been in the assembly for the past 36 years I have seen a massive mandate for the Congress But the Congress never behaved in this manner and dragged the business he said further adding that this session was only about Kamra to Kabar referring to the issues raked against standup comedian Kunal Kamra and Aurangzebs tombHowever Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde dismissed MVAs claims The opposition was not interested in discussions They only were seen at the entrance of the assembly shouting slogans against the government But never participated in actual business Shinde said in a veiled reference to the Shiv Sena UBT campMeanwhile the CM made it clear that despite having a massive mandate the proceedings of the assembly was done as per the norms The session time was not cut We tried solving different issues through discussions he stated The CM also claimed that on an average sixandahalf hours of work is expected daily in the session but this time the average daily time of the House was nine hours