Maharashtra Speaker’s election today: Stage set for first test for new CM Shinde

The Indian Express | 2 months ago | 03-07-2022 | 03:40 am

WITH THE Speaker’s election slated for Sunday after Shiv Sena announced the candidature of its MLA Rajan Salvi for the post against BJP’s Rahul Narwekar, the stage is set for the first test for the newly sworn-in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his group of Sena rebels, and for BJP and the Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.Shinde and Fadnavis were sworn in on Thursday and the Governor has called for a special session of the assembly on Sunday and Monday for the Speaker’s election followed by a floor test. The election will mark the first battle in the House between Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena which has 16 MLAs, and Shnde-led rebel group with 39 MLAs.On Saturday, Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu issued a whip, asking all the MLAs to be present in the assembly and cast their votes in favour of Salvi.Replying to the whip issued by Prabhu, Chief Minister Shinde asserted that it does not apply to his group as they have more than two-thirds of the total 55 Sena MLAs. He said, “We will face the floor test and we will win”.Sources said a separate whip is likely to be issued by the Shinde faction for the election and the floor test.Ajay Chaudhari, Shiv Sena legislative party leader said, “We have a strategy in place but I can’t disclose it now.’’ Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said, “We will fight the Speaker’s election and we believe in the Constitution. I have heard that the Shinde faction spokesperson Deepak Kesarkar said that Uddhav Thackeray is their leader. These MLAs now must obey the whip and vote for Rajan Salvi.”Shiv Sena parliamentary party leader Vinayak Raut said, “We have issued a whip that the rebel MLAs should vote for Rajan Salvi. If they don’t, it will be an added material in our case in Supreme Court for disqualifying them.”A three-time MLA, Salvi was accompanied by Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant, Sena legislature party leader Ajay Chaudhari, state NCP chief Jayant Patil, and Congress legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat while filing his nomination for the election.Meanwhile, late Friday night, Thackeray sacked Shinde from the post of Shiv Sena leader in party organisation for indulging in “anti party activities’ ‘.“Dear Shri Shinde, You have been indulging in anti-party activities and have also voluntarily given up your membership of Shiv Sena. Therefore, in exercise of the powers vested in me as the Shiv Sena Paksha Pramukha, I remove you from the post of Shiv Sena leader in the party organisation,” the letter issued by Thackeray read.The move came after Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as CM and deputy CM respectively on Thursday. Sources in Shinde camp said that they will challenge the letter legally.Ahead of the Speaker’s election, the rebel Sena MLAs and Independent MLAs returned to Mumbai on Saturday evening after spending almost 11 days out of the state — first in Gujarat, then in Assam, and then in Goa. They arrived in Mumbai on a special flight and will be camped at a south Mumbai five-star hotel along with BJP MLAs.Addressing them, CM Shinde asserted that the whip of state legislative leader Bharat Gogawale, who is a part of his group, will be applicable to them, and not that of Shiv Sena’s which has been reduced to a minority.Security was beefed up in Mumbai and police security was deployed along the route from Mumbai airport to South Mumbai hotel to avoid any untoward incident.As the floor test is also scheduled on Monday, Shiv Sena president and former CM Uddhav Thackeray held meetings with party leaders to carve out a strategy. Congress MLC Bhai Jagtap and Congress working president Charan Singh Sapra also met Thackeray at Matorshree Saturday afternoon and all MVA leaders held a meeting in the evening.The NCP legislature party will hold a meeting on Sunday morning to decide their strategy. State NCP president Jayant Patil said, “I feel elections should not be held. All three parties gave a letter… We have a deputy Speaker, Narhari Zirwal, and he has the right to run the House… When the government has changed, Koshyari has allowed elections for a Speaker and people are watching these developments.”Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said, “Earlier, MVA demanded election of Speaker and it was denied by the Governor quoting law related to elections. Now, we can’t understand the reason to have elections. The Governor should not forget that he is a constitutional authority, and not a BJP worker.”

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Now, Lobo says leaving BJP was mistake

Times of India | 1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:46 am

Times of India

1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:46 am

Calangute: Calangute MLA Michael Lobo on Sunday said that the people have got the wrong impression that he broke an oath to God by leaving Congress and joining BJP. “The oath was that we will not break from the party when we form the government. If the people of Goa did not give us 21 seats, then the oath does not stay. The oath was that if the party gets the numbers and wins and forms government, we will not break. But we only got 11 seats,” he said. Replying to queries, Lobo said it is for the people to decide if they will vote for him again. “We have to work for the people, only then will they vote for us again,” he said. He said the eight MLAs leaving Congress does not mean the party is finished. “Congress still has three MLAs. It does not mean the end of Congress,” Lobo said. However, he said it was a mistake to have left the BJP and joined Congress just before the assembly election. “Personally I think we should not have left BJP. If we made a mistake, then we have to admit it and we have admitted it. We’ve now come back into the party,” he said. He also denied that he rejoined BJP because of threats of raids by the ED and other investigation agencies.

BJP in office today due to Upadhyay: Kamat

Times of India | 1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:45 am

Times of India

1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:45 am

Margao: Up until about10 days ago, he was singing paeans to the founders of Congress and how its roots lay in the freedom movement. On Sunday, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat paid rich tributes to Pt Deendayal Upadhyay, an RSS thinker and former leader of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of BJP, on his birth anniversary. Hopping from ward to ward represented by councillors affiliated to him, Kamat led his supporters-turned-saffron karyakartas in eulogising the leader who showed the nation the path of antyodaya. For Kamat, the ideological switchover has been seemingly smooth and complete, effortless and instant. “Upadhyay laid the foundation of today’s BJP. If BJP is in office today, its credit goes to leaders like him who did the spadework for the party which was then known as Bharatiya Jana Sangh. It’s the exemplary work done by Upadhyay and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee that has now resulted in BJP coming to office,” Kamat told his supporters who stood shoulder to shoulder with original BJP karyakartas who had fought battles over the last 17 years.Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann ki Baat of Sunday, wherein Modi hailed Upadhyay and credited him with India’s progress and achievements, Kamat said that BJP (then Bharatiya Jana Sangh) during those times worked towards reaching out to all sections of society and uplifting the common man. “It’s the duty of all karyakartas to remember the leader, and therefore the party chalked out this program of holding the shraddhanjali programme in all wards,” Kamat said. Political observers say that BJP’s success in Margao will hinge largely on how well the two BJP factions – one controlled by Kamat and the other belonging to the party cadre – gel with each other. A few days ago, BJP held a meeting with Kamat and the party cadre in Panaji in the presence of the top brass of BJP, including chief minister Pramod Sawant, that served as an icebreaker to thaw the relations between the two. The recent change in equations in the Margao Municipal Council (MMC), following Kamat switching over to BJP, led to the ouster of Ghanashyam Shirodkar, hardly a week after he was elected chairperson. Though Kamat’s nominee Damodar Shirodkar was defeated by Ghanashyam in the chairperson’s elections, it’s unlikely that Kamat will have the final word in deciding the candidature this time as a couple of councillors elected on the BJP-backed panel are also eyeing the top post.

Trinamool Spent Rs 47 Crore For Goa Polls, BJP Rs 17 Crore: Election Body

Ndtv | 1 day ago | 25-09-2022 | 11:19 am

Ndtv

1 day ago | 25-09-2022 | 11:19 am

Eyeing expansion, the Trinamool Congress had actively campaigned for the assembly elections in Goa.New Delhi: The Goa assembly elections were keenly fought with the Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party throwing their hats in the ring but when it came to poll expenditure, it was the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress that loosened its purse strings spending a whopping Rs 47.54 crore.The BJP, which retained power in Goa with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at the helm, spent over Rs 17.75 crore towards election expenditure in the state.The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP spent nearly Rs 3.5 crore in Goa, where it tried its luck for the second consecutive assembly elections.The details of the election expenditure were submitted by the respective political parties to the Election Commission recently.The Congress, which was hoping to dislodge the BJP from power in Goa, spent approximately Rs 12 crore on the Goa elections.The Nationalist Congress Party gave Rs 25 lakh each to the 11 candidates it had fielded for the elections, besides spending on the campaign from the party's central fund.The Shiv Sena, which fielded 10 candidates in the Goa elections, spent nearly Rs 92 lakh towards poll expenditure. Eyeing expansion, the Trinamool Congress had launched an election blitzkrieg in Goa with poll strategist Prashant Kishor playing a key role in trying to get the party a toehold in the state.The party fielded 23 candidates in the Goa assembly election but none of them won, while its ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party put up candidates in 13 seats and managed to win two.The AAP fielded 39 candidates and managed to open its account in the state by winning two seats.The Congress had cried foul at the entry of Trinamool Congress and the AAP in the electoral fray in Goa, accusing them of dividing the anti-BJP vote.The BJP won 20 seats in the 40-member assembly and formed the government with the support of two MGP MLAs and three Independent legislators.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comEarlier this month, eight of the 11 Congress MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Michael Lobo and former chief minister Digambar Kamat, defected to the BJP.(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

10,000 sanads for forest land in 18 months: Goa CM Pramod Sawant

Times of India | 2 days ago | 25-09-2022 | 07:50 am

Times of India

2 days ago | 25-09-2022 | 07:50 am

MARGAO: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday handed over land title documents (sanads) for forest land under occupation to several beneficiaries under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Addressing the gathering at a function held at the south Goa collectorate, Sawant said that the government has set a target of handing over 10,000 sanads to claimants of both individual and community rights category, within the next 12 to 18 months. Sawant said that his government was working on the Antyodaya principle, and said that being able to hand over titles to rightful claimants of forest land under the Act was his biggest achievement since becoming the chief minister. “There were nearly 10,000 applications pending under the Act whenI became the chief minister in 2019. No sanad was given to any claimant before that. So far 2,000 to 2,500 sanads have been handed over to beneficiaries. The rest will be cleared in due course,” he said. He urged beneficiaries not to sell the agricultural land they have now come to own, but cultivate it with the assistance of the agriculture department. Sawant also inaugurated the FRC Sanad Information System portal that will facilitate beneficiaries under the Act to obtain their land title documents online. “This is yet another step in our mission towards making Goa swayampurna (self-reliant),” Sawant said. Despite a large number of claims, sources said lack of documentation by claimants, the requirement of 50% quorum at gram sabhas have turned out to be major impediments in speedy processing of claims.

Man tries to enter club as CM’s brother, booked

Times of India | 2 days ago | 25-09-2022 | 04:46 am

Times of India

2 days ago | 25-09-2022 | 04:46 am

Panaji: The Porvorim police have booked an unidentified man, who introduced himself only as Dhairya, after he tried to enter a nightclub free of cost by claiming that he was the brother of chief minister Pramod Sawant. Although he was subsequently denied entry, he tried to forcefully enter the club. Sawant said he has instructed the police to nab the accused immediately.As per a complaint lodged before the police, a tall person called Dhairya, who had a strong build and fair complexion, and was dressed in a short-sleeved white shirt and trousers appeared at the entry counter of LPK Waterfront – a club that is located at Nerul – at around 12am on September 20. He claimed to be the brother of the chief minister in order to avoid being charged for entry into the club, the complaint stated. The club’s security in-charge, Pavan Rozer, said that the accused also promised ‘help’ in exchange for being let into the club. However, when he was denied entry, he attempted to use force to get into the club and even threatened the staff there with dire consequences, the complaint added.

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