Congress set to claim LOP post in council, Satej Patil is frontrunner

Among the opposition parties, the Congress, with eight MLAs, has the maximum number of legislators in the Upper House

MUMBAI: The Congress is likely to get the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) position in the Maharashtra legislative council. With the term of the incumbent LOP, Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator Ambadas Danve set to end next month, the post will fall vacant.

Congress set to claim LOP post in council, Satej Patil is frontrunner

Among the opposition parties, the Congress, with eight MLAs, has the maximum number of legislators in the Upper House. The other two alliance partners, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) have six and three members respectively.

The LOP position comes with a cabinet rank status and all the perks of a cabinet minister. Politically, the posts of LOP in the assembly and council are significant, as the persons occupying these are the face of the Opposition and lead the latter’s attack on the floor of the legislature.

The prospect of getting the LOP post is significant for the Congress, which has been struggling after several of its leaders deserted it following the crushing defeat in the assembly elections last November. According to Congress insiders, senior leader Satej Patil has emerged as the first choice of the party. “We do have other senior leaders but all of them have supported him,” said a senior Congress leader. “Even the party leadership has given its approval.”

Reportedly, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leadership too has agreed to concede the post to its ally. According to sources, Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal even discussed Patil’s name as the new LOP with Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray last week.

“There is an understanding between the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) that the Congress will support the Sena (UBT) for the LOP position in the assembly while the Sena (UBT) will back us in the legislative council,” said a senior Congress functionary. The Congress has already signed a letter written by the opposition alliance Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi to make Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Bhaskar Jadhav the LOP in the assembly.

Speaker Rahul Narwekar, however, has yet to take a decision on this, as the Mahayuti government has been claiming that to get the LOP post, a party must have at least ten percent of the MLAs making up the total strength of the House, which none of the opposition parties have. The Shiv Sena (UBT), however, says there is no such rule. Be that as it may, the Mahayuti will not be able to stop this in the upper house, said the senior Congress functionary, as the Congress has eight members there, which is more than the alleged ten percent rule.

The total strength of the legislative council is 78, of which 30 members are elected by legislators, 22 by local bodies, seven by graduates, five by teachers and another 12 are nominated by the governor.

As far as Danve is concerned, his membership is set to end on August 29. He was elected as a member from the Aurangabad-Jalna local bodies constituency. A farewell ceremony was also organised for him on Wednesday. The Thackeray loyalist was appointed to the position on August 9, 2022.