Maharashtra legislature’s monsoon session shifted from Mumbai to Nagpur, starts July 4

A day after the results of the two Lok Sabha bypolls were out, the state government announced that it will hold the monsoon session of the state legislature in Nagpur instead of Mumbai from July 4.

On Thursday, Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao’s office issued an order to the state legislature to hold the session at Nagpur from July 4.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been keen on this shift in venue to send out a signal that it has given importance to Vidarbha, its citadel and a backward region. In the 2014 polls, the party had swept the region winning 44 out of the 62 seats here.

However, so far, its ally Shiv Sena had opposed this shift. The decision to shift the venue with or without consent of its ally is expected to further strain the relations between the BJP and Sena.

Yet, a senior BJP minister said that after losing the Bhandara-Gondia seat in Vidarbha in the bypolls, the political message for Vidarbha was all the more important to the BJP.

“We don’t want to wait until December to make certain announcements for Vidarbha and Marathwada. This will be a good public relations exercise for us in our stronghold. There is some resentment against the government in rural areas and we are keen to stem that,” admitted the minister.

Along with this, the state government, in accordance with the Centre, is planning to reschedule budget session to December in Mumbai to facilitate change in the financial year to January-December from existing April-March as suggested by the Niti Aayog.

Typically, the monsoon session is held for three weeks while the winter session, which is held in Nagpur every year, lasts for two weeks.

When the government first announced to shift the venue two months ago, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray opposed it by saying that the shifting of venue would not help in development of Vidarbha.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had then formed a three-member committee of ministers to take a decision by mid-April. The opposition from Shiv Sena had deferred the decision as BJP did not want unwarranted clashes during the bypolls held on May 28.