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Consensus eludes BJP, Sena over free electricity supply to farmers

The contentious issue of providing free electricity to farmers in Maharashtra remained unresolved as a meeting of the joint co-ordination committee of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the state failed to find a solution to the issue.

The meeting, which started at 10 o'clock last night and extended well beyond midnight, was part of the understanding between the two coalition partners to meet once in three months to discuss various issues.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said he had expressed his opinion on the matter to Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who also holds the energy portfolio, and left it to them to take an appropriate decision.

"There are no differences between the partners and the press should not try and instigate the same," he told reporters at the five-star hotel in suburban Bombay where the meeting was held.

It was also decided at the meeting that proper co-ordination should be maintained between the Shiv Sena and the BJP, he added.

Thackeray said the state government would consider all possibilities to provide free electricity to farmers and take a unanimous decision.

Chief Minister Joshi said a lot of issues came up for discussion at the meeting, the most important being free electricity for farmers. But the discussion was incomplete and no decision could be arrived at, he added.

He also said the issue would not be discussed at tomorrow's Cabinet meeting.

Munde and senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan were reluctant to talk to reporters after the meeting. Munde only said the revised pay scales of police personnel, as suggested by Thackeray, will come up for discussion in the Cabinet.

UNI

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