JOIN USAs Maharashtra's MVA govt crumbles, a look at its turbulent 2.5 years
In November 2019 when Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came to power sending BJP to the Opposition benches, Uddhav Thackeray would not have realised what was lying ahead.
In its 2.5-year stint, the MVA rose above all the internal contradictions within the alliance coupled with potshots fired by the BJP leaders. The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance guided by veteran Sharad Pawar - managed to sail under the rough weather.
However, in March 2020, the blow came in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic when it lost the opportunity to do as promised. The MVA also had regular run-ins with Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
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An astute leader of the Opposition and two-time former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis knew very well how to keep his political adversary engaged 24x7.
From containing the Covid-19 pandemic, mob-lynching of sadhus in Palghar, death of Sushant Singh Rajput and Disha Salian to facing charges of corruption and misuse against ministers like Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, the state government tried to not lose focus.
But despite odds, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray figured in the list of top five chief ministers by various surveys.
The big challenge before Uddhav was the farmers' issues and agrarian crisis, an economic recession, but he came out with a loan waiver scheme, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana, in which loans up to Rs two lakh were waived off -- totalling around Rs 20,000 crore.
His ratings increased when he scrapped the Mumbai Metro car-shed plans in the Aarey Colony, a green lung of Mumbai but the Centre put a spanner in the works by denying the use of the salt pan land in Kanjurmarg.
“We did not panic during man-made and natural calamities and our focus remained on the welfare of the common man. Most of the last two years went in Covid-19 management. We succeeded in turning the crisis into an opportunity,” Thackeray, now the caretaker-CM, used to say in his speeches.
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Although Covid-19 hit Maharashtra badly, the Thackeray government created 6,490 Covid facilities including jumbo centres in major cities with over four lakh isolation beds, over 1.32 lakh oxygen beds and over 38,000 ICU beds alongside a rapid vaccination programme.
On the social, cultural, tourism and heritage front, Thackeray and his son Aaditya ensured the development of fort tourism and opened up new avenues like caravan tourism, new adventure tourism and agri-tourism policies.
Maharashtra's efforts to cut emissions and tackle climate change with its new Electric Vehicle policy, which was unveiled in July 2021, aimed to achieve 25% electrification of public transport and last-mile delivery vehicles by 2025.
On the economic front, the state attracted over Rs three lakh crore as investments with over 60 MoUs that will create three lakh jobs.
His set of final decisions touched the people of Maharashtra -- the renaming of Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv respectively and naming the Navi Mumbai International Airport after farmer leader DB Patil.