After losing LS elections, Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra enters RS poll fray
Mumbai, Jun 13: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra on Thursday filed nomination papers as the NCP candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, days after she lost the Lok Sabha polls from Baramati.
Incidentally, barring leaders from the NCP, no politician from the Ajit Pawar-led party's allies in the ruling Mahayuti -- the BJP and the Shiv Sena -- was present when Sunetra Pawar filed her nomination at the Vidhan Bhavan in south Mumbai.
Senior NCP leaders like Rajya Sabha member Praful Patel, Maharashtra cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal, party's state unit president and Lok Sabha MP-elect Sunil Tatkare and legislative assembly deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal were present at the filing of the nomination.
Bhujbal said though he was keen on contesting the Rajya Sabha polls, he was not upset with Sunetra Pawar’s nomination, which he described as a "collective decision" of the party.
In the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, Sunetra Pawar lost from the Baramati constituency in Pune district, where her sister-in-law Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar, registered her fourth consecutive win.
“The NCP has decided to field Sunetra Pawar for the Rajya Sabha elections. Even I was keen on contesting the elections, but during a meeting on Wednesday evening, party leaders finalised her name,” said Bhujbal.
The Rajya Sabha secretariat has notified ten vacancies in the Upper House -- two each in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and one each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura.
These seats have fallen vacant after the sitting members got elected to the Lok Sabha in the just concluded parliamentary polls. Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by MLAs in states.
The Rajya Sabha vacancies arose in Maharashtra after two sitting members -- Piyush Goyal and Udayanraje Bhonsle (both from BJP) -- were elected to the Lok Sabha.
Asked if key posts were going to one family, Bhujbal maintained Ajit Pawar did not decide Sunetra Pawar’s nomination.
“The decision to field Sunetra Pawar was taken by the party’s core group. It was not decided by him (Ajit Pawar) alone. It was a collective decision,” Bhujbal asserted.
Asked whether he was disappointed over not being fielded in the Rajya Sabha polls, the Cabinet minister shot back, “Can you see it on my face? I have learnt to respect collective decision-making and have been doing it for the past 57 years. Be it the Shiv Sena or the NCP, decisions are taken after discussions with people and not as per one person’s will.”
The 76-year-old politician has been in the Shiv Sena and the Congress and joined the NCP when Sharad Pawar formed the party in June 1999. The NCP suffered a split when Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs, including Bhujbal, joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in July 2023 as ministers.
Earlier, Bhujbal, a prominent OBC leader, was keen on contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Nashik, but NCP's alliance partner Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde fielded its candidate from the constituency. The seat in North Maharashtra was won by former CM Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT).
The NCP, the BJP and the Shiv Sena are constituents of the ruling Mahayuti alliance.
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AI, IndiGo, SpiceJet seek ATF price relief; say airline industry on verge of 'stopping operations'
Mumbai (PTI): Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet have told the government that the country's airline industry is under extreme stress and on the verge of "stopping operations", as they sought revision in ATF pricing and financial support.
The West Asia turmoil has pushed up oil prices, and airspace restrictions have increased airlines' operating costs, especially on long-haul routes. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) accounts for around 40 per cent of a carrier's operational expenses.
Against this backdrop, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has written to the civil aviation ministry, seeking steps to extend the same fuel pricing mechanism uniformly across both domestic and international operations as was done in the past with the establishment of the crack band.
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With an unprecedented rise in jet fuel prices and exorbitant crack/differential between crude and ATF, the federation said the operation of airlines is being challenged in totality.
"... any ad hoc pricing (domestic vs international) and/or irrational increase in the price of ATF will result in unsurmountable losses for airlines and will lead to grounding of aircraft, resulting in cancellation of flights," the federation, which represents Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet, said.
"In order to survive, sustain and continue operation, we request your urgent intervention for immediate and meaningful financial support to tide over the current situation," it said in a letter on April 26.
Also, the airlines have sought temporary deferment of excise duty on ATF, which is at 11 per cent.
"With the abnormal increase in ATF prices from the pre-crisis period, adding rupee depreciation to the increased prices, the 11 per cent excise duty also increases manifold for the airlines and adds to the ATF price as a big impact on airlines," they said.
Last month, the government limited the hike in ATF price to Rs 15 per litre for domestic operations, but for international operations, the price rose by Rs 73 per litre.
The airlines said the situation has practically made international operations, along with domestic operations, completely unviable and resulted in significant losses for the aviation sector in April.
Seeking urgent intervention on the current ATF ad hoc pricing, FIA said the current situation is creating a severe imbalance in domestic and international operations and rendering airline networks unviable and unsustainable.
"The airline industry in India is under extreme stress and is on the verge of closing down or of stopping its operations."
The federation has pitched for a transparent pricing framework under the crack band mechanism (USD 12–22/BBL) that was implemented in October 2022, saying there was a fair and reasonable margin for Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
According to FIA, the country's largest aviation hub Delhi has the second-highest value-added tax (VAT) of 25 per cent on jet fuel, while the highest rate is 29 per cent levied in Tamil Nadu.
"The other major aviation cities, viz. Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kolkata range between 16 per cent and 20 per cent. These 6 cities cover more than 50 per cent of airlines' operations within India," the federation said.
