285 members take oath at Maharashtra Assembly's special session
Mumbai, Nov 27: A special session of the 14th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was held here on Wednesday where oath was administered to 285 newly-elected members.
In the 288-member House, two members - Sudhir Mungantiwar (BJP) and Devendra Bhuyar (Swabhimani Paksh) - did not take oath on Wednesday, a Vidhan Bhavan official said.
Pro tem Speaker Kalidas Kolambkar took oath on Tuesday after being appointed to the post by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
Two members - Mahesh Baldi (Independent), Mohammed Ismail (AIMIM)- were administered oath in the Speaker's chamber on Wednesday as they arrived after the House was adjourned, legislature secretary Rajendra Bhagwat told PTI.
Ismail arrived late as he got stuck in traffic, while Baldi, the MLA from Uran in neighbouring Raigad district, was held up as the ferry boat which he boarded to reach Mumbai from Alibaug, broke down, he said.
Bhagwat said a decision on the date for Speaker's election will be taken after the Cabinet meeting, following the swearing-in of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister on Thursday.
However, sources in the Congress said the election for the Speaker's post will be held on November 30.
Earlier in the morning, NCP MP Supriya Sule greeted party MLAs Ajit Pawar and Rohit Pawar at Vidhan Bhawan entrance before the commencement of the session.
"This day comes with a big responsibility," she told reporters.
In the House, Kolambar announced Babanrao Pachpute, Vijaykumar Gavit and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil as the presiding officers for administering oath of the members.
Names of members were called out on the basis of seniority.
Presiding officers Pachpute and Gavit were the first to take oath followed by caretaker chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
NCP's Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal, Congress leaders and former chief ministers Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, and former speakers Dilip Walse Patil (NCP) and Haribhau Bagade (BJP) were among the members who took oath early.
Ajit Pawar was greeted with thumping of desks from NCP members when he went to the podium to take oath.
Newly-elected Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray, who made his electoral debut by winning from Worli seat in Mumbai, was congratulated by members cutting across party lines.
The 29-year-old son of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray went up to all senior members to greet them.
Dhiraj Deshmukh (Congress) and Rohit Pawar (NCP) were also among the newcomers who took oath.
The newly-elected members could not take oath earlier even one month after the results of the Assembly polls were announced due to dramatic political developments in the state.
The state remained under President's rule for 13 days between November 12 and 23 after no political party was able to form a government.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Koshyari to appoint a pro tem speaker and ensure all elected members of the House are sworn in on Wednesday itself by 5 pm.
The BJP-led government, which was formed with the support of NCP leader Ajit Pawar on November 23, collapsed on Tuesday afternoon, after Pawar stepped down as deputy chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister.
The 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' comprising the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress, on Monday submitted a letter claiming support of 162 MLAs to the governor.
The NCP has announced that Uddhav Thackeray would be the next chief minister of Maharashtra.
He will be sworn in CM on Thursday evening at Shivaji Park in Dadar, the place where his party holds the traditional Dussehra rally each year.
Thackeray is currently not a member of any House in the state legislature.
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Nashik court sends ‘godman’ Kharat to seven-day judicial custody in third rape case
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Nashik (PTI): A court in Maharashtra's Nashik on Monday remanded self-styled godman Ashok Kharat to judicial custody till April 20 in a third case of rape against him for allegedly sexually exploiting a pregnant woman.
The special investigation team (SIT) produced Kharat for a virtual hearing in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Ichpurani as his police custody in the case ended on Monday.
The SIT presented the remand report and sought judicial custody for Kharat, a former merchant navy officer. The court then remanded him to a seven-day judicial custody till April 20.
In the third case, Kharat, who was first arrested in mid-March, is accused of sexually exploiting a seven-month pregnant woman, the wife of his office staffer.
According to the complaint lodged by the victim's husband, the accused sexually assaulted the survivor on multiple occasions, including in his office in Nashik, between November 2023 and December 2025.
Kharat also conducted a ritual with the pregnant woman at a temple in Mirgaon village of Sinnar taluka of the district, it said.
Although the victim informed her husband about her plight, he did not believe her. But when he heard about complaints of Kharat's misbehaviour with other women, he planted a spy camera in the astrologer's office to find out the truth and recorded his acts.
The employee later handed over to the police a pen drive containing objectionable videos of the 'godman'.
Kharat faces nearly a dozen cases, eight of them related to sexual assaults.
The SIT, meanwhile, has filed an application in the court demanding Kharat's custody in another case. As the court granted them the necessary permission, the team will take the accused's custody from the Nashik Road Central Jail.
Kharat will be produced in court again in the fourth case on Tuesday.
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