Maharashtra Politics: 100-Day Report Card Sparks Controversy

In Maharashtra, the state government's 100-day report card has exposed underlying tensions among ruling coalition partners. While some departments excelled, Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal criticized the report, highlighting intra-party conflicts and questioning electoral integrity, amidst calls for accountability and transparency. Fadnavis is perceived as maintaining dominance in this political landscape.

The release of Maharashtra's state government's 100-day report card has reignited tensions among the Mahayuti coalition partners, with Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal pointing to a 'cold war' between the allies. According to Sapkal, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis attempted to portray his leadership and departments as outperforming those run by alliance partners Shiv Sena and NCP.

In the aftermath of Mahayuti's assembly election victory, Fadnavis implemented a 100-day target program for each department. Out of 48 departments, a dozen scored a perfect 100, and 18 achieved over 80% of their targets, as announced by Fadnavis. However, Sapkal criticized the report as masking a political game of one-upmanship, with demands for resignations among ministers proving to be a consistent theme.

Sapkal cited instances such as NCP's Dhananjay Munde's resignation and Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate's conviction as evidence of internal strife. He argued that notable discrepancies in the performance scores denote a calculated effort to show the departments led by non-BJP partners unfavorably. Sapkal further accused the coalition of misconduct in voter roll increases while supporting a recent caste census decision championed by Congress.