Mumbai, April 12: Bharatiya Janata Party top leaders, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and others sat on a day-long fast across Maharashtra on Thursday to protest the disruption of Parliament's budget session by opposition parties.
Fadnavis, along with Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, MP Poonam Mahajan, actor-turned-MP Paresh Rawal and legislator Parag Alvani launched the fast at the local party office in Vile Parle.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal started a hunger strike at the government hostel in adjoining Thane along with a large number of supporters and party activists.
MP Kirit Somaiya sat on a fast near the Bhandup railway station along with his supporters.
Besides, other state ministers led similar fasts in their respective constituencies or districts where they are appointed Guardian Ministers and were joined by local MPs, MLAs, MLCs and party workers across the state.
At all places, the BJP leaders and hundreds of activists carried banners or placards with slogans critical of the opposition parties and holding them responsible for the washout of the second part of the Parliament session.
The call for a day-long fast by the BJP central leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given to protest the manner in which the second half of parliament's recently-concluded budget session was stalled by the combined opposition parties.
The BJP has alleged that the Congress did not allow Parliament to function, initially on account of the bank scams. Thereafter, the YSR Congress and TDP created hurdles on the issue of Special Status for Andhra Pradesh by moving a no-confidence motion against the government.
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ECI website faces outage amid vote counting in Jharkhand, Maharashtra
New Delhi: Election Commission of India’s official results website ‘results.eci.gov.in’ has reportedly experienced a technical outage on Saturday morning, at a time when India closely watches the high-stakes Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly poll battle.
Visitors visiting the site were met with non-functional links and a generic “counting in progress” message, leaving them without updated election data. The ECI has not issued an official explanation for the disruption.
Vote counting, which began at 8 a.m. with postal ballots, is underway for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 81 in Jharkhand. Early trends suggest a lead for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, currently ahead in 141 seats, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is leading in 96. In Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA is ahead in 43 seats, while the ruling JMM-led alliance is trailing with leads in 33 constituencies.
Additionally, counting is underway for 48 assembly bypolls across 13 states and two parliamentary seats, Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala.
