The Maharashtra mess

THE new BJP government in Maharashtra led by Devendra Fadnavis got off to an unpleasant start. There was a cloud gathering over the trust vote, which was necessary to legitimize the government and the BJP won it. But the Shiv  Sena  and the Congress demanded a division of votes but that was not granted. The BJP has got itself into a mess of its own making. The trust vote had to be transparent and free from all ambiguity about the strength of the government in the Assembly. There was a controversy over the voice vote and the Speaker should have put the trust vote to a division. The BJP is short of a simple majority of 145 in the Assembly but it has still won the vote. It had to avoid a division of votes as in that case it would have been necessary for the party to enlist the unconditional support of 41 NCP Members of the Assembly. It would have been open to criticism as the BJP had attacked the NCP for its corruption during the election campaign.
Chief Minister Fadnavis has to run a minority government in a political environment fouled by antagonism between the government and the opposition. His government needs to be stable and for that he has to get the support of a fair section of the opposition. Five Congress MLAs have been suspended from the Assembly for two years for alleged misbehaviour with the Governor. That has defiled Maharashtra politics even further. P.V Narasimha Rao had a lot of problems in running a minority government at the Centre for some time. The minority AAP government in Delhi had to quit. The BJP should do its best to build a bridge with a large number of opposition MLAs in Maharashtra.