Congress’ choice of new Maharashtra LoP forefronts factionalism in party’s State unit Premium

Read The Hindu’s analysis following former Minister Vijay Wadettiwar appointment as the new Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly

The nomination of three-term Congress MLA and former Minister Vijay Wadettiwar as the new Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly signals the growing weight of the Vidarbha region within the Congress as well as in State politics. 

An influential OBC (Other Backward Class) leader from Chandrapur district, Mr. Wadettiwar is known as a politically aggressive face of the party who has successfully resisted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) onslaught in Vidarbha.

His selection by the party high command, after nearly a month of the LoP post remaining vacant, comes when the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition has been jolted by the desertion of NCP leader and erstwhile LoP Ajit Pawar, who joined the ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde government last month.

Mr. Ajit Pawar was long perceived as going ‘soft’ on Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde in his capacity as LoP. Mr. Wadettiwar’s pugnacious style of functioning is expected to remedy this.

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This is the second time that Mr. Wadettiwar has been given the LoP’s post under similar circumstances. In March 2019, senior Congressman Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who later joined the BJP, had sparked a crisis by resigning as LoP in the Assembly.

In the months before the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, Mr. Wadettiwar, with his customary dynamism, effectively countered the BJP with the result being that the Congress gave its best performance in the Vidarbha region in both elections.