MVA Skips Traditional Tea Party Ahead of Maharashtra Budget Session

Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Sunday boycotted the customary tea meeting hosted by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on the eve of the Budget session of the legislature. The brief five-day Budget session commences on Monday. 

MVA comprises the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar faction of NCP, while the ruling coalition has BJP, Shinde-led Shiv Sena and NCP group under Ajit Pawar as partners. Chief Minister Shinde had hosted the tea party. After a meeting of MVA leaders, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar said in a press conference that the government had failed to check farmer suicides.The Congress leader accused the government of encouraging criminalisation of politics and triggering social tensions over reservation and misleading the Maratha community for its "own selfish political interest".

The developments in the state have tarnished its image. "We don't wish to be a part of the government's sins by attending the tea party," he said. The opposition has attacked the government over the "deteriorating law and order" situation in the state in the backdrop of the killing of Sena (UBT) leader Abhishek Ghosalkar and Kalyan (East) BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad shooting Shinde Sena leader Mahesh Gaikwad inside a police station.