After a delay of a couple of weeks, veteran Congressman Vijay Wadettiwar was appointed Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Wadettiwar (60) represents the Brahmapuri seat, which falls in the twin districts of Chandrapur-Gadchiroli in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
A five-time MLA, he has represented Chimur constituency three once for two-terms representing Brahmapuri.
Speaker Rahul Narwekar announced Wadettiwar’s name on the post - a couple of days after the Congress conveyed to the Chair about the decision of the opposition.
Though there were several others from the Congress in the race, the Maha Vikas Aghadi leadership and the Congress high-command stamped his name.
Wadettiwar places NCP’s Ajit Pawar, who has left the opposition benches to join the BJP-led NDA (Maya Yuti) headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to become the Deputy Chief Minister alongside Devendra Fadnavis.
After Wadettiwar was appointed to the post, Shinde, Fadnavis, Pawar and the opposition leaders escorted the Congress leader to the seat of the leader of opposition.
Wadettiwar had served as Leader of Opposition briefly in 2014 for around four months when Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil left Congress to join the BJP.
Wadettiwar had served as a minister in the erstwhile Democratic Front government and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha seat, the Congress could win the Chandrapur seat in Maharashtra for which Wadettiwar has worked hard. The Chandrapur seat was won by Balu Dhanorkar - who passed away in May this year.
Incidentally, in the current Assembly - there are four former Leaders of Opposition - Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis, Ajit Pawar and Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.