Maharashtra: Four MLAs resign, set to join BJP ahead of polls
Mumbai: Four opposition Congress-NCP legislators in Maharashtra resigned from the State Assembly on Tuesday, amid talk of their joining the ruling BJP.
NCP MLAs Shivendrasinhraje Bhosale (Satara), Vaibhav Pichad (Akole) and Sandeep Naik (Airoli) and Congress MLA Kalidas Kolambkar (Naigaon) handed over their resignation letters separately to Speaker Haribhau Bagade at the state legislature building Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai.
I am more interested in protecting the interest of my assembly constituency," said Bhosale, whose cousin Udayanraje Bhosale is NCP MP from Satara.
Vaibhav Pichad hails from Akole tehsil in Ahmednagar district and is the son of former NCP minister Madhukar Pichad. Vaibhav's assembly segment adjoins that of Balasaheb Thorat, the new state Congress president.
Maharashtra BJP leaders have been harping that the party aims to win at least 220 of the total 288 Assembly seats along with allies. Kolambkar is a seven-term lawmaker from Mumbai, while Shivendrasinhraje Bhosale won the Satara seat in 2014 by 47,813 votes.
The four MLAs are likely to join the BJP on Wednesday, sources said. These would be the latest inductions in the BJP ahead of Maharashtra Assembly polls due in just over two months.
NCP's Mumbai unit chief Sachin Ahir recently quit the party to join the Shiv Sena, while Jaydutt Kshirsagar, NCP leader and former Maharashtra Minister, joined the Shiv Sena in May.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
