Maharashtra govt cancels customary tea party before Legislative Assembly session

The Maha Vikas Aghadi government on Sunday decided to cancel the customary tea party session that is held on the eve of the monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray cancelled the customary tea party on the eve of the Monsoon Session of the legislature. The state government invites all parties a day before the session over a cup of tea. It is a custom for the chief minister to host the tea party on the eve of the session.In the recent past, Opposition parties have boycotted the tea party citing a number of political issues. Last year, Maharashtra Leader of Opposition CM Devendra Fadnavis had decided to boycott the chief minister's tea party. It is a non-responsive government that has not addressed the problems of any segment of society, Fadnavis had said.In the political quarters of Maharashtra, it is rarely seen that a chief minister cancels the tea party altogether. “Opposition parties were anyway going to boycott the tea party. To cancel it altogether sends out a message that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is vulnerable. The government in likelihood wanted to avoid a discussion on the Speaker's election,” said a political analyst.CM Thackeray will hold a meeting on Sunday with his Cabinet colleagues ahead of the session.The Maharashtra Assembly is without a Speaker since Nana Patole resigned to become state Congress president. While MVA has the numbers, candidates are yet to be announced.BJP is likely to corner the state government on issues like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe against former home minister Anil Deshmukh and issues such as the Maratha reservation and reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies.During the confidence vote in November 2019, the MVA alliance managed to get its Speaker elected with 169 votes. The BJP had 114 votes, out of which 105 were BJP MLAs. The legislative assembly is a 288-member body.According to sources, MVA has reached out to independent MLAs to enhance its tally from 2019. The Congress is down one seat after one of its MLAs recently passed away.