Mahayuti needs to accommodate Dalits, minorities to win assembly polls, says Ramdas Athawale
Mumbai, Jun 22: Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Saturday advised the ruling ‘Mahayuti’ alliance in Maharashtra to accommodate Dalits and minorities to win the assembly elections.
Talking to reporters here, Athawale said his Republican Party of India (Athawale) would seek eight to ten seats for the state polls due in October. Maharashtra has 288 assembly seats.
The ruling alliance comprises the BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and NCP headed by Ajit Pawar.
“We also want one MLC seat in the biennial elections to the legislative council scheduled next month,” he said.
In the proposed cabinet expansion in the state, RPI (A) should get a ministerial berth, the Dalit leader said.
Athawale said Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had assured him that his demands would be considered. “I hope he seriously considers our demands,” he said.
Athawale, who was retained as a minister of state in the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he expected a Cabinet berth, but many other allies also needed to be accommodated.
“Being a minister at the Centre for the last eight years, I have been able to expand my party elsewhere in the country,” he said.
Athawale said he wanted his party to contest from Shirdi and Solapur in the Lok Sabha polls but the BJP did not consider their request.
“We (BJP-led NDA) expected 40 seats (in Maharashtra) but got 17 in the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
He said the opposition's narrative that the BJP would change the Constitution if it got over 400 seats misled Dalit voters, referring to the NDA’s subpar performance in the general elections.
There is not much difference between the vote shares of the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Mahayuti, he said.
“Dalits and minorities need to be brought into the fold of Mahayuti to win assembly polls. I will put this point in the meeting of Mahayuti leaders,” he said, stressing that the ruling alliance can win the polls if there is unity.
He said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar had the backing of most MLAs, hence the Election Commission ruled their groups as real Shiv Sena and NCP, respectively.
Maratha and OBC quotas, which are currently under the spotlight, are important issues, said the RPI (A) head, adding that Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange should be invited to the all-party meeting next week.
He also rued that his efforts for Dalit unity had not succeeded. “If Prakash Ambedkar of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) agrees, I am ready to work under him,” he said.
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Man arrested with Rs 2.54-crore heroin in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.
The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.
Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.
The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.
Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.
The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.
