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Saturday,07-June-2025

Maharashtra

Maharashtra Elections 2024: Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis Likely To Claim CM’s Post If Mahayuti Forms Govt Again

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Maharashtra Elections 2024: Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis Likely To Claim CM's Post If Mahayuti Forms Govt Again

With most of the exit polls predicting a majority for the Mahayuti led by the BJP, the saffron party is preparing to occupy a central position post the results which will be declared on Saturday. The main question is who will be the BJP’s candidate for chief ministership. The party had assiduously avoided projecting anyone as the CM candidate and has preferred to wait for the results to be declared. However, considerable significance is assigned to Fadnavis’ meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the Sangh’s headquarters in Mahal, Nagpur, on Thursday.  Officially it is being said Fadnavis called on Bhagwat to thank for the massive voter mobilisation that the Sangh Parivar did during the assembly poll of November 20. 

Sources in the BJP told that in June, 2022 the party made a big blunder in agreeing to have Eknath Shinde, the rebel Shiv Sena leader, as the CM. Fadnavis (54) had played a crucial role behind the scenes in vertically splitting the Shiv Sena and pulling down the Uddhav Thackeray government. He staged a coup right under the nose of Thackeray by weaning  away Shinde and his pack of 36 MLAs away from Uddhav Thackeray.  For all his efforts, it was widely assumed in BJP circles that Fadnavis would be rewarded with the CM’s post, especially since the party had the maximum number of MLAs at 105.  

However, the cadres and Fadnavis himself was stunned when the BJP high command wanted Shinde to be the CM.  In fact, Fadnavis publicly made his disappointment public by asserting that he was not interested in joining the Shinde-led government. It required a lot of cajoling from PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah to get him to work under Shinde. 

The central leadership’s calculation was that by anointing Shinde as the CM the Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray would be politically emaciated. However, the past two years’ experience has proved the BJP central leaderships’ calculations wrong. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is not only strong but in fact put up a rather impressive performance in the Lok Sabha elections early this year at the cost of the BJP.

Several persons in the BJP are saying, in retrospect, that had Fadnavis been made the CM after the eclipse of the MVA government led by Thackeray the party would have politically become stronger and done well in the LS polls. “We hope that the central leadership of our party will learn a lesson from the mistakes committed by it in the past and this time around recommend Fadnavis for the CM’s post. He has already served as CM from 2014 to 2019 and acquitted himself well as a good administrator,” a senior BJP leader observed.

There are a few other contenders for the CM’s post like Pankaja Munde, Chandrakant Patil and Vinod Tawde. But none of them have the political stature of Fadnavis who is keen on working only in Maharashtra. The only minus point is that he belongs to the Brahmin caste which is traditionally distrusted by the Marathas. But then it was Fadnavis who took the initiative to pass a law providing for reservation for Marathas. 

All these calculations are based on the surmise that the psephologists have got it right this time around vis-a-vis the assembly poll outcome. Also, the increase in voting percentage is expected to help the BJP.  However, the BJP has kept a Plan B ready lest its calculations go awry. The party is not averse to taking the help of Sharad Pawar if the Mahayuti falls short of numbers.  The Central government has already put tremendous pressure on Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule in the Rs 250 cr bitcoin case. It might politically weaponise the case to make Pawar fall in line. It may even agree to accommodate Supriya as the deputy CM.

It may be recalled that Pawar, for all his secular posturings, has as early as 1978 joined hands with the Janata Party (of which the major component was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) to become the CM. More recently, he was part of the plot to let his nephew Ajit Pawar join hands with the BJP to form a government in November, 2019. Also, industrialist Gautam Adani is a common link between Pawar Sr and the BJP. 

Maharashtra

Police alert for peaceful Eid-ul-Azha in Maharashtra

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Mumbai: Eid-ul-Azha was celebrated peacefully in Mumbai and all of Maharashtra. In Thane, miscreants tried to spoil the atmosphere on Eid-ul-Azha, which was foiled by the police. The police have also taken action against such elements spreading poison on social media. Along with this, peaceful namaz was also offered at the Idgah located at Dogadi Fort in Kalyan. An attempt was also made to ring the bell in the temple located in Fort and at the right time of Namaz, Shiv Sena and Shinde workers gathered and rang the bell, due to which the police took them into custody and prevented the atmosphere from getting spoiled. Police Commissioner Ashutosh Dumbare had made tight security arrangements in sensitive areas like Mumbra, Bhiwandi Police Station, Rabodi Kalyan and Ulhasnagar. In Mumbai too, the police was alert and prepared in the backdrop of Eid-ul-Azha and Qurbani.

Due to the dispute over Qurbani in housing societies, the police had made tight arrangements in such societies where problems had arisen earlier. Along with this, BMC allowed sacrifice in many societies and temporary altars for sacrifice. Muslims performed the ritual of sacrifice with Abrahamic zeal. Apart from this, police guard was also kept on Eidgahs and mosques in Mumbai. Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti reviewed the situation. According to this, the arrangements in Mumbai were completed. Mumbai Police also kept an eye on the miscreants and monitored social media.

Along with this, Eid-ul-Azha was celebrated peacefully in various districts of Maharashtra, Malegaon, Aurangabad, Beed, Osmanabad, Amravati and all over Maharashtra. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere. Police sources have claimed that Eid was celebrated in a peaceful atmosphere and orders for action against the miscreants were also issued, after which sacrifice was done and the splendor of sacrifice was seen everywhere in Muslim localities.

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Maharashtra

ED took action on 15 places including Mithi river, cleanliness, irregularities, Dino Morea

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Dino Morea ED

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has raided 15 places including Mumbai in the irregularities case in the cleaning of the Mithi river. The Enforcement Directorate has also claimed to have seized many important documents related to the case while conducting raids in Mumbai and Kochi. The ED has also raided the house of film actor Dino Maurya. The EOW has registered the first FIR in this case, after which the Enforcement Directorate has now started a parallel investigation. The ED has taken this action under the PMLA Money Laundering Act. Dino Maurya has also been involved in this irregularity. The EOW has also questioned him and his brother.

It is said that Dino Maurya and Ketan are close to Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray. Now Dino’s troubles have increased. The EOW has found many important documents and evidence in the Mithi river corruption and irregularities case in Mumbai, so now the ED has also started its action in the case of misuse of funding and illegal tender purchase in this case. Many Shiv Sena leaders are also in the ambit of ED action, because during the Mithi river corruption scam, Shiv Sena was ruling the BMC, so the scope of investigation has become focused on Shiv Sena leaders. EOW has also made significant progress in its action in the Mithi river corruption case in Mumbai. More revelations are expected after the arrival of ED in this case. EOW has taken action against 13 people in this case so far and has also arrested them. In this, political leaders including BMC officials are also on the radar of ED.

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Maharashtra

Mumbai: MLA and SP leader Abu Asim Azmi appeals to avoid sacrificing animals in the open on Eid-ul-Azha

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Mumbai: Mumbai Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi has appealed to Muslims not to perform Qurbani in the open and also follow BMC and government guidelines. Cleanliness is half of faith, so take special care of cleanliness. Not only this, it is mandatory to follow all the guidelines and guiding principles set regarding Qurbani. Take special care of cleanliness and ensure that the brothers and sisters of the country do not face any kind of trouble on Eid-ul-Azha. This is the real teaching of Islam. Celebrate Eid with mutual love, brotherhood and following Sunnat Ibrahimi. Azmi said that the waste of Qurbani on Eid should also be kept in bags and thrown in the dustbin.

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