What does state Finance Minister Ajit Pawar have in store for us in the 2020-21 Maharashtra Budget slated for March 6? Will the budget be any different from its previous populist avatars? Will it have financial sops and welfare announcements for the vote blocs relevant to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners? Will it also selectively tax people — consumers of alcoholic beverages and patrons of luxury services? The possibilities are endless because Pawar will be struggling to balance realistic revenue targets with ever-increasing expenditure. The budget is likely to consolidate a sense of what the MVA leaders have built in the past two months — that of the previous BJP regime making a mess of the state's finances by raising a massive debt over big-ticket projects and other things.

So, it should be interesting to see how Pawar articulates the budget statement and crafts the MVA's vision for the future when the alliance's united strength is brought under threat by the BJP that bullies the Shiv Sena over its earlier shared ideology. While the Sena faced attacks over its alleged ideological shift in the first week of the budget session, the BJP also raised the agrarian issue which the MVA defused by launching the loan waiver on the very first day. On Saturday, the second list of 22 lakh farmers followed a pilot list on February 24. The government said farm bank accounts on the second list would start receiving the money from Monday itself as it had eliminated the 'difficulties created by the previous government'.