Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) legislator from Mulund, Mihir Kotecha has alleged that the Shivsena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of Maharashtra is “looting the State” through “scams”.

Speaking to the Dialogue, Kotehca claims, “This government is busy in scams only. The Uddhav government has reduced the ready reckoner rates by 65-70 percent which benefitted 8-9 developers in Mumbai. The state’s exchequer suffered a loss to the tune of Rs10,000 crore. While the government happily gave away the assured income of Rs10,000 crore to few rich people, it has left the poor electricity consumer in the lurch citing that waiving their bills will burden the exchequer with Rs2,000 crore. In the pandemic, most people have lost jobs or got pay cut and hence unable to pay hefty bills imposed on them last year. If the government waives their bills, they will give only dua (blessings) but when you help rich people, you will earn crores.”

He claims further, “Incidentally, power minister Nitin Raut had promised to reduce the power dues of poor, but when he put forth a proposal in this regard in the cabinet, it was rejected. The Shiv Sena would never want Congress to take credit for such goodwill gesture and reap the political dividend. This also shows the friction within the MVA government.”

“See, the Congress has got just 44 MLAs in the Assembly yet they have 12 ministers in the government. The Congress-NCP, who have got merely 98 MLAs in 288-member Assembly, are ruling the roost. All they want is power and money,” Kotecha, who is also the treasurer of Maharashtra State BJP, alleges.

Kotecha alleged, “When Devendra Fadnavis took cover as Maharashtra Chief minister the state had a debt of 3.5 lakh crores. This has gone up but due to huge infrastructure projects such as metro, Nhava Sheva sea link, coastal road, etc. He invested money in infrastructure projects. While the MVA government just tweaks the policy to benefit some or other groups and take 20 percent cut in each project.”

Wasn’t Shivsena your partner for many years? Kotecha says, “People had given the mandate to us in 2019 Elections. Perhaps Shiv Sena could not make the money they wanted to during the Fadnavis-led government. That’s why it joined hands with two corrupt parties,” Kotecha alleges.

On BJP leaders' claims that the MVA government will “fall soon” and they would form the government in Maharashtra suggesting the poaching of MLAs from other outfits, Kotecha responds, “This is the most unnatural alliance in India. This govt will collapse due to internal frictions only which are rising day by day. BJP has nothing to do with it.”