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BJP boycotts Maharashtra cabinet meeting in protest against Sena's policies

Simmering differences between the coalition partners, the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra today spilled into the open, with all the BJP ministers boycotting the weekly cabinet meeting.

The BJP, the junior alliance partner in the state government, has had long-standing reservations over the ambitious 'Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp' project, announced one month ago by the Sena's Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain to provide free housing for nearly 125,000 slum-dwellers in Bombay.

Though the scheme has not been implemented and will come into effect only from October 2, the BJP feels that the project is not feasible and cannot meet its objectives.

Speaking to Rediff On The NeT,Vinod Tawde, BJP's Maharashtra general secretary said, "Our party seriously believes that the project is not feasible and needs some amendments before we start implementing it." Jain told Rediff On The Net that he believed the scheme to be feasible, and "if implemented by October 2 it would benefit the people".

Interestingly, the project had caused a war of words between the two alliance partners, with the BJP's Bombay unit president Kirit Somaiya announcing at a media conference last week that the project won't achieve its objectives. He called on the state government to reconsider its decision.

Responding to Somaiya's charge, Jain lashed out by calling him a "foolish person" who had no knowledge of the subject. Apparently, he also criticised BJP state president Suryabhan Wahadne who too had demanded changes in the project.

Ever since the incident, the Sena and the BJP have been indulging in shadow-boxing, rather on the lines of what is happening between the BJP and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham at the Centre. In fact, Jain went to the extent of saying that he will not apologise even if told by Sena chief Bal Thackeray to do so.

Argues Tawde, "Suresh Jain must apologise since this is not the way to behave with your coalition partners."

The BJP-Shiv Sena had promised in their election manifesto that they will provide four million free houses to slum-dwellers in Bombay through the Slum Redevelopment Programme. However, it has been a complete failure and only 3,000 houses have been provided so far in the last three years.

Under the SRP, the slum-dwellers can form a cooperative and approach a private builder to construct a building and more importantly, the government will not invest a single paisa in these projects. However, the builders lobby did not show much interest in it and the scheme flopped.

Interestingly, the new scheme is the exact opposite of the SRP. In this scheme, the government will be a co-owner with the builders, and the total outlay for the project is expected to be between Rs 80 and 100 billion.

While the initial amount of Rs 6 billion will be shelled out by the Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority, loans will also be raised from the Housing Development and Financial Corporation and the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India.

Moreover, while the government will give 125,000 houses free to slum-dwellers, 75,000 flats will be sold in the open market.

Argues Somaiya, "According to statistics from Bombay stamp duty office, only 3,907 flats were sold in the city last year. And according to builders associations, in the last three years the demand for houses has been falling. So who will buy these 75,000 flats from the open market in this recession-hit industry? And moreover, how will the state government recover the Rs 80 billion?"

Interestingly, Raj Purohit, the BJP's minister of state for housing who is a junior minister to Jain, was kept in dark about the entire project and he only came to know after everything was finalised.

"Our minister was not even consulted before the scheme was announced. And moreover, the chairman of the project is Jain himself and all the builders who are involved in this project are his friends," remarked a BJP leader.

Jain is a former Congressmen and had left the party to join the Congress-Tiwari group after Arjun Singh and N D Tiwari broke away from the parent party. However, when both of them rejoined the Congress, Jain, who is an industrialist, joined hands with the Sena and subsequently joined it.

Asked about the BJP's allegation that being an ex-Congressman he was out to destabilise the state government, Jain said, "Anybody can say anything, but I am a Shiv Sainik and will remain one."

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde has written a letter to Chief Minister Manohar Joshi about his party's ire against Jain. The Sena and BJP leaders are meeting tomorrow at Matoshree, the Sena chief's residence. The Sena's housing minister, in the eye of the storm, too is expected to be there.

Senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan and Wahadne are also expected to attend the meeting to solve the ongoing dispute between the Sena and the BJP, and to hopefully do some serious damage control.

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