Despite the fact that Congress had announced the creation of a shadow cabinet to expose the Devendra Fadnavis government by monitoring the performance of all its departments, the idea seems to have flopped before materialising.
Despite the fact that Congress had announced the creation of a shadow cabinet to expose the Devendra Fadnavis government by monitoring the performance of all its departments, the idea seems to have flopped before materialising.
Regional leaders out of reckoning
Soon after electing Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil as its leader of opposition in the state assembly, Congress had announced that it would create a shadow cabinet so that its members would assess the performance of each governmental department and minister. The idea, however, has been shelved since popular Congress leaders from all regions of the state have either been defeated or are not in the assembly due to one or the other reason.
Rane, Chavan missed sourly
For instance, Narayan Rane, ex-chief minister and former leader of opposition, was the biggest upset during the assembly elections and Congress is missing him in attacking the Fadnavis government both inside and outside the house.
Former chief minister Ashok Chavan, a formidable force from Marathwada, is now a Lok Sabha member and the party is missing his services too. State unit president Manikrao Thakare said that since prominent ministers such as Rane, Harshawardhan Patil and Nitin Raut lost the assembly elections, "the party does not have prominent leaders in the house and that is the reason we had to do away with the idea of shadow cabinet."
Prithviraj Chavan not that keen
Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has undertaken a tour of different regions of the state and has tried to attack the government, but he is not seen in the agitations leading from the front when it comes to taking to the streets. Though he was present during the farmers' march in the state assembly in Nagpur, which also turned out to be a flop, Chavan never provided leadership to any protest march or, for that matter, even the protest at the assembly gate where governor C Vidyasagar Rao was allegedly manhandled on the day of the trust vote on November 12.
Congress held rallies in all parts of the state to bring to the fore issues of farmer suicides and the government's failure to rein in the spiralling prices, but it could not evoke encouraging response.
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