Dharmendra Jore: Will awkward Opposition get its act together in time?

BJPs unofficial bench strength in the Maharashtra legislative assembly seems adequate for stabilising its government which faces a crucial monsoon session from todayThe session wont be as crucial not because we dont see any adverse political situation arising for the BJP but because a divided Opposition will be put to test at a time the government itself is going through a difficult phase in terms of dealing with several issues that need huge finances and effective machinery to implement relief measures and taking policy matters to the ground levelGame set match BJPOnce in minority the Devendra Fadnavis government got a muchneeded boost from the Shiv Sena in December 2014 but the extension of support has proved to be a great cause of annoyance for the bigger ruling party which repeatedly tries to give it back to the Sena And the BJP has done it yet again this time through the presidential poll The monsoon session will surely be under the spell of factors that went BJPs wayPresidentelect Ram Nath Kovind got 208 votes of which 63 were from the Sena If these are subtracted from the total the BJP still has 145 votes a number sufficient for holding fort even without the Uddhav Thackerayled partyThe runup to the presidential election did not offer much action across the country except for Thackerays demand for throwing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the ring in exchange for his partys votes BJP chief Amit Shahs closeddoor deliberations during a visit to the Thackeray residence sealed the deal in Kovinds favourThe real excitement was palpable after the result the breakup of votes polled by the main candidates winner Kovind who will take up the top job officially on Tuesday and Meira Kumar who vindicated politicians who had predicted a crossvoting from the Opposition in favour of the BJPbacked veteranMaharashtra didnt prove to be an exception Though it would be difficult to name the crossvoters data crunching establishes that at least 12 MLAs from the Congress NCP and smaller outfits in the Opposition camp ditched KumarThough a floor test if conducted in the assembly would have rules different from the presidential poll in which the parties dont issue a diktat for favouring a particular candidate called a whip in parliamentary terminology the BJP has managed to put the Sena under tremendous pressure as well as issue a veiled warning to the Congress and NCP that many of their MLAs were willing to help out the Fadnavis governmentInvisible helping handsGarnering of votes especially the figure of 145 seemed to be a wellthoughtout strategy by the BJP The success has upped the confidence of Fadnavis and his main players who have a long innings ahead The government is halfway through its fiveyear term Challenges have increased manifold in the past six months with the Sena playing a villain in every possible issueFadnavis acknowledged the extra support in the presidential poll The invisible hands will help us whenever the situation demands that the government needs to be saved he said in an interactive event held by a private news channel on SaturdayThe CM hinted that the helping hands existed not only in the Opposition parties but also in the Sena My government is as stable as ever I have no plans to go to Delhi he added putting a full stop to rumours of him getting promoted to national politics At the same function Senas Sanjay Raut vowed that criticism of the Fadnavis government would continue unabated It is important to have critics in the family the BJPSena government he saidDivided they standHaving so many sensitive subjects and issues at hand for launching a potent attack on the government the Opposition disappointed on Sunday The NCP refused to be a part of the Congressled meeting and media meet and held a separate one to address the media The NCP has always faced allegations that it plays into BJPs hands when it comes to legislating issues It had declared support to the BJP for forming the government even before all election results had been outIt is also said that Congresss Opposition leader in the assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil has been too friendly with the BJP Patil almost confessed at a public function recently and landed in trouble for saying that the BJP government is much better than the previous CongressNCP one He also admitted that he was friends with the CM hence his every legislative move will now be under scannerWe will be keenly watching the next three weeks to see how the game unfolds between the awkward leaders in the Opposition the angry Shiv Sainiks and the elated swayamsevaks in the BJPDharmendra Jore is political editor midday He tweets dharmendrajore Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom