Whips of opposition parties with under 10% strength to not get state funded facilities

The resolution denies state-funded facilities to whips of parties with less than 10% strength in the Maharashtra legislature.

The whips appointed by political parties with legislators less than 10 per cent of the total strength of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and Council will now not be entitled to standardised status, facilities and honorarium available to whips from parties exceeding the 10 per cent threshold, stated a government resolution (GR) issued on Wednesday.

Under the new norms, whips of every party, which is part of the government, are entitled to above mentioned facilities while not a single whip of the Opposition party will be given these, as none of them fulfil the criteria of the 10 per cent mark in a 288-member Legislative Assembly.

According to the GR issued by the state Parliamentary Affairs department on standardising the status, facilities and honorarium of chief whips and whips of political parties in the state legislature, the chief whip will be accorded protocol rank of a Cabinet minister but will not be entitled to salary, allowances and other facilities given to the Cabinet minister. Similar rule will be applicable to the whip, who will get the status of Minister of State. The honorarium for the both the chief whip and whip will be Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000 per month, respectively.

The GR made it clear that whips of parties with at least 10 per cent of the total House strength are entitled to state-funded facilities. The Assembly Speaker has yet not cleared the Opposition’s demand of appointing a Leader of Opposition. Sources claim that the reason cited for the same is that none of the Opposition parties fulfill the criteria of having at least 10 percent members of the total strength of the House.

The strength of the Maharashtra assembly is 288. Of the ruling combine of the Mahayuti, the BJP has 132 MLAs, Shiv Sena 57 and the NCP 41. Of the Opposition parties, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 20 members, the Congress 16 and NCP (SP) 10. Smaller parties and independents together account for the remaining seats, including Samajwadi Party (2), JSS (2) and several parties with one MLA each.

“This is a typical BJP government behaviour, denying basic decency to Opposition parties. This is not only outrageous but unsurprising as per that party’s track record,” said Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.