Maharashtra budget not financially viable, schemes are false promises: Ambadas Danve

Leader of Opposition in the state legislative council and Shiv Sena UBT leader, Ambadas Danve, speaks with Vallabh Ozarkar on his recent suspension from the Legislative Council, the impact of the numerous schemes and freebies announced by the state government in the budget and explains why he believes these offerings will negatively impact the state's finances.

Several schemes were announced by the government in the budget. Do you think it can affect the MVA in the upcoming polls?

The budget is nothing but announcements made before the assembly polls. One should really look at the overall budget of the government, expenditure, and the income of the government.

Does the government have sufficient money to fulfill the promises they have made?

These announcements have been made only eying on the polls. The overall policy of the government is not development-oriented, they have only announced freebies in the budget. The farmers of the state are not happy with such announcements. The farmers feel that instead of giving such freebies with schemes like Ladki Bahin Yojana, the government should help the farmers by giving them better minimum support prices on crops (MSP). This is the demand of the farmers. The farmers are distressed and struggling. So I don't think it will affect us in the polls, the people have understood that these announcements are nothing but just false promises.

Do you think the schemes are financially viable or feasible?

These schemes are not feasible or financially viable at all and to fulfill these promises, the government will have to begin reducing the allocation of funds to different departments like rural development, social development, etc. The budget is already imbalanced and I don't think the people are going to accept it.

You were suspended recently and you had alleged that there was injustice upon you and you were not given an opportunity to present your side. Now they have reduced the suspension period. Do you still feel that there was injustice ?

I have no issue or complaint with the way action was taken against me. But the person on the side (BJP MLC Prasad Lad) also did not behave properly. But it was ignored by them (deputy chairperson).

The action was taken only against me. They only targeted me. I am not new to the house, I understand my responsibilities. I acted because there was a provocation from the other side. Why would I do something without any reason? Deputy chairperson also knew what the other side did, but she preferred to ignore it completely.

You had sent the removal notice for the deputy chairperson. What is the status on it? Has there been any progress on it?

We had sent a notice about the membership of the deputy chairperson itself, nothing has happened about the notice. There was not even a single hearing about it. Now we are left with no option but to approach the court.

Marathwada has been a stronghold of Shiv Sena UBT after Mumbai and Konkan, but the party's LS candidate lost, which was a big setback. Now for the assembly polls, how are you going to make a recovery in the region?

The political equation was different in the LS polls and hence we lost the Aurangabad seat. But if you see, the calculations of assembly polls and LS polls are very different. The people of Marathwada are with the Sena UBT. We will win a good number of seats in the assembly polls. We have accepted a challenge and have resolved to win more seats like we had won in 1995 when we had come to power.

What are your preparations for the MLC elections? The Sena UBT has fielded Milind Narwekar. Do you have sufficient numbers to win the seat?

Narwekar is a crucial functionary of the party and as we have fielded him for the polls, that means we have our strategy and numbers in place to ensure his victory. I will not be able to divulge the calculations and our strategy, but we certainly have the numbers to win the seat.