Elections to the 15th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly are slated for November 20, with the term of the present, 288-member Assembly coming to an end on November 26. Over the last five years, the duration of the 14th Assembly, Maharashtra has witnessed near-constant political turmoil, with three different chief ministers, splits in two major regional players, and the birth of shaky alliances.
Here are the key statistics on the functioning of the ongoing Maharashtra Assembly:
📌Three individuals were sworn in as Chief Minister: Since 2019, the state has seen three chief ministers – BJP’s Devendra Fadavis, Shiv Sena’s (Maha Vikas Aghadi) Uddhav Thackeray, and now Shiv Sena’s (Mahayuti) Eknath Shinde.
📌 Assembly met for 27 days, with 7-hour sittings on average: Statistics in PRS Legislative Research showed that the Assembly met for 27 days a year, with sittings lasting for 7 hours on average. This is more days than the national average of 27 other Legislative Assemblies.
📌 Longest sitting of 15-hour-long: The longest sitting was in March 2023, and lasted for 15 hours. The state Budget was discussed in the session.
📌 70 per cent Bills passed in 5 days or less: A third of all Bills were passed in both Houses within a day of introduction.
📌 Nine Bills referred to Committees: These included Shakti Criminal Laws Bill, 2020, Payment of Compensation to Farmers Bill, 2023, Seeds Bill, Insecticides Bill, Essential Commodities Bill, among others.
📌 Most Bills passed relate to education and local governance: 33 Bills setting up private universities, or altering provisions related to public universities were passed. 24 Bills dealing with urban local bodies (municipal corporations, municipal councils, etc.) were passed.
📌 18 per cent of the MLAs who have been part of the Assembly have been Ministers: As per PRS Legislative Research, 18 per cent of the MLAs or 53 individuals in the Assembly were previously ministers.
📌 Speaker’s Chair remained vacant for over a year: In February 2021, Speaker Nana Patole resigned. The Assembly then functioned without a Speaker for over a year, with the Deputy Speaker presiding. A new Speaker, Rahul Narwekar, was elected in July 2022, after a change in government.
📌 Over 120 MLAs faced disqualification proceedings between 2022 and 2023: The data showed that a total 42 per cent of the Assembly faced disqualification proceedings between 2022 and 2023.