Maha MVA alliance put to test tussle over shifting car shed By Manisha Rege

    Mumbai, Dec 25 (PTI) While coronavirus forced people
to stay indoors, Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi combine of
Shiv Sena, NCP and Congresss was also busy keeping the BJP at
bay on many issues as it battled the pandemic during the year.
    The ruling alliance took on the BJP over relocating
the Mumbai metro car shed project from Aarey to Kanjurmarg,
even as the Bombay High Court stayed allotment of land in
Kanjurmarg for the integrated metro car shed project.
    The year also saw Shiv Sena's 'fiery Hindutva' stand
mellowing down, with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray speaking
of taking everyone along.
    Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Thackeray got into
an acrimonious exchange over the reopening of religious places
in the state.
    In a letter with sarcastic overtone, Koshyari asked
Thackeray if he had turned 'secular' as he denied permission
to reopen the religious places. Thackeray responded, saying he
did not need a Hindutva certificate from anyone.
    Following Koshyaris letter, Nationalist Congress
Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar also sent out a letter to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi slamming the governors approach
towards the issue.
    "I am shocked and surprised to know that the letter of
the Governor was released to the media and also the kind of
language used in the letter which does not behove well for a
person who holds a constitutional position," Pawar wrote to
the prime minister.
    While the Sena and NCP seemed to be making most of the
unlikely post-poll alliance which formed the government last
year, the Congress which finished fourth in the Assembly polls
found itself pushed to the corner.
    According to a Congress leader, some in the party's
state unit feel that had it sought the deputy chief minister's
post instead of the Assembly Speaker's post, the MVA regime
may have looked like a true three-party government.
    Ajit Pawar who returned to the MVA after forming a
three-day government with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis last year,
is someone Uddhav Thackeray relies heavily on for the latter's
administrative acumen,a Sena leader said.
    The MVA government did not get the 'honeymoon' period
a newly-formed dispensationnormally gets.After the full
cabinet was formed on December 30 last year, the government
got barely three months to settle down before the pandemic
gripped the state.
    Even as perception grew stronger that the 'Thackeray
sarkar' was handling the pandemic well by setting up 'jumbo'
field hospitals,a task force of medical experts to advise on
treatment, audit of COVID-19 deaths, taking over 80 per cent
beds in private hospitals and covering the state population
under the Mahatma Phule health scheme, came the death of actor
SushantSingh Rajput in June this year.
    The Thackeray-led coalition government found itself in
the cross-hairs of BJP as attempts were made to implicate his
son and state minister Aaditya Thackeray in the deaths of
Rajputand celebrity media manager Disha Salian.
    Mumbai police said Rajput's death was a case of
suicide but egged on by social media theories, the actor's
family filed a complaint against the actor's girlfriend Rhea
Chakraborty and her relatives, accusing her of stealing his
money and driving him to end his life.
    Actor KanganaRanaut joined the anti-government
campaign on social media by tweeting against Shiv Sena,
Uddhav Thackeray and his son.
    At his party's Dussehra rally, Thackeray spoke about
the conspiracy theories surrounding Rajput's death that
targeted Aaditya Thackeray.
    Without naming Kangana Ranaut, he said "those crying
for justice" accused Mumbai Police of being useless. "Mumbai
is PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), there are drug addicts
everywhere - they are painting such picture," he said.
    In what the BJP termed as retribution against critics
of the state government, journalist Arnab Goswamiwas arrested
in an abetment to suicide case, while the Sena-controlled
Mumbai municipal corporation demolished Ranaut's alleged
illegal construction in Bandra.
    The Mumbai police also unearthed a TRP ratings scam
allegedly involving Republic Media Network and arrested some
officials of the network.
    Even as some questioned the government's stability,
the victory of Congress and NCP in the graduates and teachers
constituencies in the Legislative Council polls brought cheer
to the MVA partners who contested the polls together.
    The results boosted the morale of the government which
spent most of the year battling coronavirus and natural
calamities like cyclone, floods and heavy rains.
    Former BJP leaders Eknath Khadse and Jaisingrao
Gaikwadjoined the NCP this year.
    The Maharashtra cabinet in December decided to list
the Maratha community under the Economically Weaker Sections
(EWS) category. The 10 per cent EWS quota is earmarked for
those who are not covered under any social reservations.
    The decision came after the implementation of the
quota for the Maratha community under the SEBC (Socially and
Economically Backward Class) category was stayed by the
Supreme Court, and was challenged by the state government.
    The Shiv Sena versus BJP slugfest over the location of
the metro car shed for the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz line is set to
get uglier, with the state government now looking at land
meant for Prime Minister Narendra Modis pet bullet train
project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
    The MVA government is considering using a plot of land
in the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) that was set aside to be the
originating point for the bullet train. "We are considering
various sites. One is the BKC land earmarked for the bullet
train project. The other options are Pahadi, Goregaon, and a
plot of land in Kalina," an official said.
    The MVA government faced flak for not extending the
terms of three statutory development boards which lapsed on
April 30 this year.
    The boards Vidarbha Development Board, Marathwada
Development Board and Rest of Maharashtra Development Board
came into existence on May 1, 1994, with the stated objective
of correcting regional imbalance in allocation of funds and
resources for the development of neglected regions. PTI MR VT
VT VT

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)