Mumbai: Cyclone 'Nisarga' has made landfall near Alibaug on Maharashtra coast with the wind speed of more than 110 kms per hour and heavy rainfall, leading to falling of many trees and electricity poles, a Raigad district official said.

The cyclone hit areas near Dive Agar in Shrivardhan, 87 kms away from Raigad, district collector Nidhi Choudhary said.

"Due to the impact of the gusting winds, many trees and electric poles fell down in Shrivardhan as well as in Alibaug," the collector said.

She said 13,541 people have been shifted to safer places so far.

"We have identified 62 villages in the radius of five kilometres near the coastline (in Raigad) and are taking extra precautions there," the collector said.

She appealed to people to stay indoors until Thursday morning for their own safety. As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the landfall process started around 12.30 pm near Alibaug, 95 kms from Mumbai.

"The right side of the wall cloud passes through coastal region of Maharashtra, mainly the Raigad district. It will gradually enter into Mumbai and Thane districts during the next three hours," the IMD said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the collector said the fallen trees and electricity supply poles will be removed in the next few days and replaced with new poles.

"Not only the coastal areas in Raigad, but residents of towns like Roha, Tala, Sudhagad, Khalapur, Mangaon, Panvel and Poladpur will also have to remain alert," she said.

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New Delhi (PTI): AAP's Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj hit back at Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Monday over his "toxic workplace" analogy, saying even when an employee decides to leave a company, he serves a notice period instead of conspiring to damage the organisation's image.

Bharadwaj's remarks came after Chadha, who along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), announced his decision to merge with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), defended his exit by comparing the Arivind Kejriwal-led party to a toxic workplace.

In a video statement, Chadha had said if the atmosphere at the workplace becomes toxic, employees are stopped from working, their hard work is suppressed and they are silenced, then the right decision is to leave that place.

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Responding to this, Bharadwaj said while people may leave companies, political parties are based on ideology and not merely workplace convenience.

"There is nothing to do with ideology in changing a company. But if someone agrees with the ideology of a political party, only then does he join it," he said in a video posted on X.

Bharadwaj added that even in a company, an employee who decides to leave follows professional ethics.

"If an employee leaves a company, he serves a three-month notice period so that whatever he has learnt from that company can be properly transitioned. They do not conspire to ruin the company's image," he said.

Bharadwaj alleged that instead of leaving the party respectfully, Chadha began planning to join the BJP and started acting in a way that harmed the AAP.

"When the ED's pressure increased, you planned to join the BJP and started conspiring with it," he alleged.

The AAP leader also claimed that many issues raised by Chadha in Parliament, including affordable food at airports, mobile-recharge concerns, paternity leave and gig workers' rights, were already aligned with the BJP's political agenda.

Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal announced on April 24 that they were joining the BJP, along with four other AAP MPs. The others who quit the AAP were Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney.

On Monday, the Rajya Sabha chairman approved the merger of the seven MPs with the BJP, raising the saffron party's numbers in the Upper House of Parliament to 113. The AAP is now down to three members in the Rajya Sabha.