Maha monsoon session: NCP (Sharad Pawar) camp seeks sitting arrangement in Opposition benches
Mumbai (PTI): Chief whip of NCP (Sharad Pawar camp) Jitendra Awhad has written to the Maharashtra Assembly speaker seeking separate sitting arrangement for members of the Ajit Pawar camp and the rest of MLAs of the party for the legislature session beginning Monday.
In a letter addressed to Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Sunday, Awhad said except for the nine MLAs- including Ajit Pawar- who have joined the government, the Nationalist Congress Party is part of the opposition.
"Except for the nine MLAs who were sworn in, the sitting arrangement for others should be made separately. The NCP is in the opposition and we want to sit in the opposition," Awhad stated.
Narwekar had recently said there was no clear distinction between who is in power and who is not in the case of the Nationalist Congress Party.
"There will be a lot of deliberations and arguments over how to decide who represents the actual NCP," he had said.
When asked about Shiv Sena which had also witnessed a similar revolt last year, Narwekar said, "The Election Commission of India (ECI) has given its verdict hence Shiv Sena's issue is solved for me. However, the NCP has written a letter to the ECI, but I do not have any update from its office".
Before Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government earlier this month, the NCP had 53 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.
In the first meeting held by Ajit Pawar in Mumbai post the split in the party, 35 MLAs of NCP and five of the eight MLCs had marked their presence.
However, the exact number of MLAs backing the Ajit Pawar camp is not known.
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Four of family killed as car jumps divider on highway in Gujarat's Panchmahal
Godhra (Gujarat) (PTI): Four members of a family were killed, and one sustained grievous injuries after their speeding car jumped a divider on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway corridor in Gujarat's Panchmahal district on Monday, police said.
The car driver lost control of the wheels near Kalol. As a result, the four-wheeler jumped the divider and veered off to the other side of the highway, an official from Kalol police station said.
Soon after the accident, some locals rushed to the scene and also alerted the police. Efforts were made to pull out the people trapped in the car.
Four persons died on the spot, while one suffered injuries, the official said.
The deceased were members of a family from Vadodara and were returning from Rajasthan when the tragedy struck, the official said.
They have been identified as Sajid Iqbal Khinji (55), Ilyas Iqbal Khinji (50), Ishaq Iqbal Khinji (48) and Rehan Azgar Khinji (35).
