MVA boycotts tea party, citing Mahayuti corruption, agrarian distress, unconstitutional conduct

Announcing the decision, Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar alleged that the government had deliberately attempted to undermine the opposition by sending invitations to individual MLAs instead of opposition parties

NAGPUR: The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on Sunday boycotted the government’s customary tea party on the eve of the legislature’s winter session, citing unprecedented agrarian distress, the government’s failure to waive farm loans, the absence of remunerative prices for agricultural produce, rising unemployment, and rampant corruption across government departments.

MVA boycotts tea party, citing Mahayuti corruption, agrarian distress, unconstitutional conduct

Announcing the decision, Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar alleged that the government had deliberately attempted to undermine the opposition by sending invitations to individual MLAs instead of opposition parties. “This is totally unconstitutional and an act of suppressing established norms of the legislature,” he said.

Wadettiwar also noted that, for the first time in the state’s history, both houses would function without a Leader of the Opposition (LOP). “In 1985, when the BJP had only 16 MLAs, the then Congress-led government had recognised it as the Opposition and granted its leader the status of LOP,” he said. “However, today, the BJP-led alliance refuses to do this. A government that has scant respect for the Constitution and democratic norms does not deserve the cordiality of our presence.”

Emphasising the severe agrarian crisis, the Congress leader alleged that six to seven farmers died by suicide every day due to rising indebtedness and crop losses. “After Narendra Modi assumed office, around 1.12 lakh Indian farmers have committed suicide and 38 per cent of them were from Maharashtra,” he said, adding that oblivious to this, the state government had neither waived farm loans nor submitted any proper compensation proposal to the Centre for crop losses. “How can such issues be meaningfully addressed in a brief seven-day session?” he asked.

Wadettiwar also accused the government of pretending to champion women’s safety through schemes such as the Ladki Bahin Yojana even as Maharashtra ranked highest in crimes against minor girls. “Between 2021 and 2025, the state recorded over 77,000 crimes against women,” he said. “Young girls and women are unsafe, government lands are being handed over to private entities illegally—how can we join such an insensitive government for tea?” he asked. “We denied them the pleasure of a photo-op that would lend credibility to their undemocratic acts.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Bhaskar Jadhav described corruption in the government as “wanton”, claiming that several ministers were functioning as “contractors of their own departments”. He also criticised the decision to restrict the winter session to just seven days, calling it a “drama” that made it impossible to raise and resolve the state’s burning issues.

Despite the “brute majority” of the Mahayuti government, both Wadettiwar and Jadhav asserted that the Opposition would continue to fight for the people. “We will raise our voices and save the state from the government’s dictatorial tendencies,” Wadettiwar declared.