Mumbai: BJP gets into opposition mode, stages protest against MVA

Senior leaders addressed a rally at Azad Maidan in Mumbai

Mumbai: BJP gets into opposition mode, stages protest against MVA

Devendra Fadnavis

Dejected after being removed from power in Maharashtra, the BJP has started playing the role of an aggressive Opposition. It stalled the state legislature proceedings for the second time on Tuesday and held a statewide agitation against the tri-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, calling it anti-farmer and insensitive towards women.

Senior leaders addressed a rally at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. Office-bearers and elected representatives of local bodies led the agitation in the rest of the state. The party claimed that over 2.5 lakh people participated in the protests at 400 locations across Maharashtra.

Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis said the farm loan waiver that the government started on Monday would take at least 460 days if it had to be carried out the way the government has planned it. He attacked the government in the House and outside over many issues, including for the agrarian crisis, atrocities against women, scrapping of public welfare decisions and schemes of the previous government.

"Shiv Sena breached the BJP's trust. But now it is out to breach the trust of farmers. They promised help to the flood-affected farmers. They declared the first list of beneficiaries of debt waiver from a particular village but did not go beyond the 20 per cent of the farmers there. If the data is collected this way, the waiver will need 460 days to reach the last beneficiary," he said.

In the morning, BJP's women MLAs led the attack from the front seeking attention towards increasing incidents of atrocities against women. They shouted slogans, gathered in the well of the House and disrupted the proceedings. Speaker Nana Patole rushed through rejecting Fadnavis's demand for taking up the debate instead of the scheduled programme.

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