Maharashtra: BJP wins Mayor's post with NCP's support in Ahmednagar
Mumbai, Dec 28: Despite lacking the numbers, the BJP, supported by NCP corporators, won the election for Mayor in the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra, leaving the ally Shiv Sena licking its wounds.
The Shiv Sena had won the highest number of seats in the recent civic election but did not have a majority.
Amid high drama, the BJP, the Sena's senior alliance partner in the state, managed to install its candidate Babasaheb Wakale as Mayor.
All the newly-elected 18 corporators of the NCP voted for the BJP by defying the party diktat.
The BJP has only 14 members in the 68-member civic body against Shiv Sena's 24. But the BJP candidate polled 37 votes in the mayoral election.
Apart from NCP corporators, four members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and an independent corporator too voted for Wakale.
Left red-faced, the NCP issued a show-cause notice to its corporators.
State NCP chief Jayant Patil claimed that clear instructions had been given to the corporators not to vote for either the BJP or the Sena.
"We are considering taking disciplinary action against them," Patil said.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the party had contested the December 10 election to the civic body in alliance with like-minded parties.
"The party corporators had been warned against voting in favour of either BJP or Sena in the election for mayor," Malik said.
High drama was witnessed during the polling when controversial independent corporator Shripad Chhindam rose to raise his hand in support of the Sena candidate.
It enraged Sena corporators who pushed and shoved him inside the house.
Chhindam later aired a purported taped conversation between him and a senior Sena corporator who he claimed had sought Chhindam's support for the election for mayor's post.
Chhindam, a BJP corporator in the earlier house, was sacked from the saffron party after he made a controversial remark about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Friday's development could be embarrassing for the NCP as the Sharad Pawar-led party is in talks with the Congress and other like-minded parties for an anti-BJP alliance for the the Lok Sabha polls.
A BJP minister said while requesting anonymity that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had called Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray offering an alliance in the Ahmednagar corporation.
"However, NCP legislator Sangram Jagtap and BJP legislator Shivaji Kardile are accused in the murder of Sanjay Kotkar, Sena's former city vice-president, and party worker Vasant Thube. Therefore Thackeray rejected our proposal," the BJP leader said.
Commenting on the development, Sena leader Anil Rathod said, "People had voted for the Sena. However, to protect the murderers of our party-men, the NCP and BJP came together."
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Dalit outfits call state-wide hartal over dental student’s death
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Various Dalit organisations on Monday announced a state-wide hartal seeking justice in the death of Kannur Dental College student Nithin Raj.
The hartal will be observed on Tuesday from 6 am to 6 pm.
As many as 52 Dalit organisations, including Justice for Nithin Raj Action Council, have announced the strike.
Organisations requesting cooperation for the strike said that no vehicles will be forcibly stopped and that all essential services are exempted.
Raj, a first-year BDS student at a private dental college in Anjarakkandy in Kannur district, was found critically injured after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
Police have registered a case against two faculty members on charges of abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following allegations by the student’s family that he was subjected to caste- and complexion-based harassment.
Kerala Pinnokka Samudaya Munnani (KPSM), one of the organisations supporting the hartal, alleged in a statement that police had shown apathy in the investigation and were attempting to protect the accused in the case.
KPSM state president K V Padmanabhan and general secretary S Anwar alleged that the probe into Raj’s death was being deliberately misdirected and delayed.
While the family has firmly alleged that caste discrimination and mental harassment by faculty members led to the student’s death, police were attempting to divert the investigation towards loan app borrowings, they claimed.
The organisation alleged that this was a planned move to shield the real accused.
KPSM further alleged that by deliberately delaying the arrest of the accused teachers, police enabled them to secure anticipatory bail.
They said there was no confidence in the present police investigation and demanded that the case be handed over to an independent agency at the earliest.
