Maharashtra Congress meeting begins, party likely to claim Opposition leader's post

Mumbai: A meeting of the Maharashtra Congress Legislature Party (CLP) got underway at the Vidhan Bhavan here on Tuesday in the presence of AICC secretary HK Patil.

The party is likely to discuss the issue of staking claim to the post of Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, in the wake of a split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The post of Leader of Opposition (LoP) fell vacant after NCP leader Ajit Pawar resigned on Friday. He joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government on Sunday as deputy chief minister while eight other NCP MLAs took oath as ministers.

Notably, the NCP, led by Sharad Pawar, has appointed MLA Jitendra Awhad as the LoP.

Sharad Pawar on Monday said the Congress, a constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, was justified in claiming the post of LoP. The NCP has 53 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.

The Congress has 45 MLAs and CLP leader Balasaheb Thorat has said all legislators are together.

Sources said almost all the legislators were attending the meeting, barring a few who were stuck in traffic due to heavy rains.

Thorat, former chief ministers Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, state Congress unit president Nana Patole and others paid homage to party leader Suresh Dhanokar, the MP from Chandrapur who died recently.