NCP's Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel reach Delhi to meet Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP leaders
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New Delhi: Amid a standoff over allocation of portfolios in Maharashtra, senior NCP leaders Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel arrived here on Wednesday evening for a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and top BJP leaders.
Talking to reporters here, Patel, the working president of the Nationalist Congress Party, dismissed suggestions about a rift in the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance in Maharashtra and asserted that the issue about the allocation of portfolios has been sorted out and a cabinet expansion in the state will take place in a day or two.
In a surprise development on July 2, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP split as his nephew Ajit Pawar and almost three dozen MLAs joined the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP leaders were sworn in as ministers.
"Do not read too much into our meetings here. It is just a courtesy call on senior BJP leaders. Ajit dada and myself have not had a formal meeting with the top BJP leadership. We will be meeting Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders here," Patel said.
He asserted that the issue of allocation of portfolios has been sorted out during two late-night meetings between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and himself on Monday and Tuesday.
"The expansion of the Maharashtra cabinet will happen in a day or two," Patel said.
Besides Patel and Ajit Pawar, senior NCP leader Hasan Mushrif is also in the national capital.
However, Patel said Mushrif is here for some personal work and will not join Ajit Pawar and him at the meeting with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
Patel said Ajit Pawar and he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 18 when a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituents has been convened by the BJP.
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Death toll from Israeli strikes in northeast Lebanon rises from 8 to 24, Lebanese news agency says
Deir al-Balah, Nov 1: Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country's news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.
It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated last month.
Israel's military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah's military infrastructure.
Lebanon's state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country's northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.
Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.
