MUMBAI: In a fresh setback to the beleagured Uddhav Thackeray camp, weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, former Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) deputy leader Babanrao Gholap joined the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday.

Gholap was welcomed in the party by Shinde in the presence of state minister Dada Bhuse and Deputy Chairperson of Maharashtra Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe.

Gholap, a five-time MLA from Nashik district, joining the Shinde camp may boost the party’s prospects in north Maharashtra.

Former MLA Sanjay Pawar also joined the Shinde-led Sena.

To add to the woes of the Congress, senior leader Sanjay Nirupam quit the party days earlier and is also likely to join the Eknath Shinde camp.

Another senior Congress MLA from Mumbai is slated to join the BJP-led camp consisting of the Shinde Shiv Sena and the NCP (Ajit Pawar).

(With inputs from PTI)

MUMBAI, (ANI): A day after being expelled by the party, former Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, who claimed that he had already tendered his resignation letter to the party president, hit out at his former party, saying that it has five centres of power. “Congress party is a completely scattered party. The leaders of the party have earlier said that its ideology is directionless but now they are scattered in terms of their organisation,” Nirupam said.

According to media reports, he is poised to join the Shiv Sena under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, which is an ally of the BJP in Maharashtra.

Explaining the organisational structure of the Congress, Nirupam said, “Earlier there was one centre of power within the Congress and there was a coterie and all the other leaders used to fight against them. Currently, you will be surprised to know that the Congress party has five power centres.” Revealing each of the centres of power, Nirupam said that all five have their own different caucus and lobby which fights among each other.

The five different power centres have their individual caucus, their lobbies which clash with one another. In the middle of this, lakhs of workers like me find themselves stuck. In these five centres, first is Sonia Gandhi, second is Rahul Gandhi, third is his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, fourth is president Mallikarjun Kharge. The people around him are those who have no political ideology and have suddenly become the high command by tying up with Kharge. The last power centre is Congress General Secretary Organisation KC Venugopal.” “Those who were meritorious are in a poor state and is deteriorating. I was observing this for a couple of years but then I lost my patience,” he added.

The former Rajya Sabha MP also took a dig at his former party saying that they have ultimately wasted an A-4 size paper. “At around 10:40 pm yesterday I had sent my resignation letter to Mallikarjun Kharge. I think right after that they got provoked by my expression in the resignation letter. They might have thought that it would be too much if they do not react and then they made such a decision (to expel him from the party). Hence, they (Congress) have finally wasted an A-4 size paper,” Nirupam said speaking at a press conference on Thursday.

Explaining what led to him tendering his resignation, the former Congress leader said, “When I got to know that they are in the mood to take action I asked them not to waste their stationery and I will make an announcement today.” The senior leader was expelled from the Congress for “indiscipline” and “anti-party statements,” Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal said in a statement on Wednesday night.

“Taking note of the complaints of indiscipline and anti-party statements, the Hon’ble Congress President has approved the expulsion of Shri Sanjay Nirupam from the party for six years with immediate effect,” Venugopal said. Nirupam was removed from the list of star campaigners for the Congress party in Lok Sabha general elections 2024 earlier in the day.

The action was taken for his recent remarks against INDIA block partner, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) amid seat sharing talks for the Lok Sabha election. Shiv Sena (UBT) declared its candidate Amol Kirtikar will contest from Mumbai North West, a seat that Sanjay Nirupam was keen to contest from. (ANI)

MUMBAI, (ANI): Veteran Bollywood actor Govinda joined the Shiv Sena on Thursday in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Mumbai. Govinda had earlier met Krishna Hegde, who is a spokesperson for Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, at his residence.

Govinda was born on December 21, 1963. He has acted in over 120 films since his debut in 1986. In 2004, Govind successfully contested the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket, defeating veteran BJP leader Ram Naik. However, he later resigned from the Congress party.

Meanwhile, earlier today, the Shiv Sena (UBT) released its first list of candidates in Maharashtra for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, naming senior leader Anil Desai from the Mumbai South Central parliamentary constituency. Party leader Sanjay Raut took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share the list of the 17 candidates, namely for Raigad, Ratnagiri, Thane, Parbhani, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Shirdi, South Mumbai, North West Mumbai, North East Mumbai, Sangli, Hingoli, Dharshiv, Nasik and Maval seats.

Sitting MP Arvind Sawant has been fielded from the South Mumbai seat, with Amol Kirtikar being fielded from the Mumbai North West constituency, a seat once represented by his father, Gajanan Kirtikar. Kirtikar’s nomination comes even as the ED on Wednesday issued a summons to him in connection with his alleged involvement in the Khichdi scam. Maharashtra, with its 48 Lok Sabha seats, is the second-largest contributor to the lower house of Parliament after Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 contested seats, while the undivided Shiv Sena secured 18 out of 23 seats. (ANI)

SHIMLA, (PTI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named six former Congress MLAs, disqualified from the House, as its candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly bypolls.

The BJP on Tuesday named its candidates for the Assembly bypolls in several states, including Gujarat, Sikkim, West Bengal and Karnataka.

It has fielded the six MLAs from the seats they held as Congress members before their disqualification. Sudhir Sharma has been nominated from Dharamshala, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul and Spiti, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Chetanya Sharma from Gagret and Devinder Kumar Bhutto from Kutlehar.

All six of them switched over to the BJP from the Congress on March 23, nearly a month after being disqualified from the House for defying a party whip to be present and vote in favour of the Congress-led government during the cut motions and budget.

Shortly before the BJP list was released, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, ”People of Himachal are intelligent, they believe in democracy and will give a befitting reply to those practising ‘aaya ram, gaya ram’ culture in Dev Bhumi Himachal.” Referring to the nine MLAs — six Congress rebels and three independents — who voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections, Sukhu said they have ”sold their souls” and should now face the public.

”We will face the political challenge on June 1, 2024, ” he added. The Himachal Pradesh Assembly bypolls will be held on June 1, along with the election to the four Lok Sabha seats in the state — Hamirpur, Shimla, Mandi and Kangra.

”We will go to the public with our performance in the past 25 months in which we have not only rectified the shortcomings of the previous BJP government but have also worked for the welfare of all sections of the society,” Sukhu said.

In another development, former state minister and BJP leader from Lahaul and Spiti Ram Lal Markanda left the party and announced he would ”definitely” contest the bypolls, ”possibly” from the Congress.

Among the names announced by the BJP, Sudhir Sharma is a four-term MLA and former minister. Rajinder Rana defeated former chief minister and BJP candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal in 2017.

Three-time legislator Lakhanpal is a former chief parliamentary secretary, while Ravi Thakur, a two-time legislator, is a former chairman of the state Congress Seva Dal and ex-vice chairperson of the National Commission for Schedule Tribes.

Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto are first-time MLAs.

These MLAs and three Independents had voted in favour of the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls held in the state on February 27, triggering a crisis for the Congress-led government in the state.

The three independents, Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur constituency), Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra) and K L Thakur (Nalagarh), submitted their resignation on March 22 and joined the BJP on the next day.

With the disqualification of six Congress MLAs, the strength of the ruling party came down from 40 to 34, including the Speaker who can vote only in the case of a tie during a floor test, in the 68-member Assembly. The BJP has 25 members.

Ever since the Rajya Sabha polls, the BJP and Congress have been trading charges with the ruling party slamming the opposition for hatching a conspiracy to topple the democratically elected government in the state by using money power and maintaining that the public will not forgive the Congress rebels for their betrayal.

The BJP has said that the Congress government is in the minority and the chief minister should have resigned on moral grounds. BJP leaders, the six Congress rebels and independent legislators also lashed at the government, especially Chief Minister Sukhu, for humiliating the MLAs and bringing development to a halt.

Rana on Saturday said more legislators were feeling suffocated in the Congress and were in contact with them. They will also show the courage to leave the Congress in the coming days, he claimed.

The rebels had slammed the Congress leadership for causing a ”political disaster” and maintained that the state government was on a ventilator.

Humiliation of legislators led to this day and even the electorates of our constituency were unhappy with the government Sudhir Sharma had said. (PTI)

KOLKATA, (PTI): TMC leader and former Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma on Sunday hit out at the Congress saying his party waited ”enough” for a seat-sharing agreement with the Congress, but it appears the senior INDIA bloc ally is disconnected with ground reality.

The TMC on Sunday announced the candidate list for all 42 Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal, dropping a few sitting MPs and bringing in several new faces such as former cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad.

In a post on X following TMC’s announcement, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the Congress repeatedly declared its desire to have a ”respectable seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal”.

In a video statement issued by the TMC, Sangma said ”We have waited long enough, the whole country can see. There was a collective intent to have single candidate from the INDIA bloc to ensure we put our strength collectively… But this did not happen.”

”If the Congress today says that the TMC has not waited and gone ahead with announcement of all 42 candidates in West Bengal, I think they need to be reminded of the fact that Congress is probably not grounded with what is on ground zero. There’s a complete delink from the ground reality,” he said. ”Is it not a fact that they have gone ahead and announce their candidates for Meghalaya?” he said.

The Congress had on Friday announced its first list of 39 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, including both seats from Meghalaya.

Ramesh also said in his post, ”The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement (seat-sharing) has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together,” he said. (PTI)

BENAULIM: Political pundits in Goa have averred that former CM and ex-Benaulim MLA, Churchill Alemao and his daughter Valanka will aggressively campaign for the Bhartiya Janta Party in South Goa, particularly in the constituencies of Benaulim and Navelim, even as Valanka is expecting a BJP ticket from the Navelim constituency in the next State Assembly polls in 2027.

“As the Goa unit of the Congress has completely closed its doors on the father-daughter duo and other parties (like the Trinamool Congress) do not have a foothold in Goa, both Churchill and Valanka have decided that the BJP is the only way for them; and with the party being in power both at the Centre and in Goa, they stand a good chance of making it to the treasury benches of the State Legislature in 2027,” opines Ashton Gomes, a former journalist from Navelim and presently based in Qatar.

 Valanka has made her intentions known time and again that she wants to contest either from Benaulim or Navelim and in the 2022 polls, she was the AITC (Trinamool) candidate and pulled 4,738 votes in Navelim.

Similarly, Churchill also contested on the TMC banner the same year. Venzy Viegas of the Aam Aadmi Party won the Benaulim seat by defeating Churchill Alemao of the All India Trinamool Congress with a margin of 1271 votes.

Now with the Lok Sabha polls barely about 50 days away, both Churchill and Valanka have hit the ground promoting the saffron party in the two constituencies of South Goa, while waiting for an official announcement vis-a-vis the official BJP candidate.

Churchill had plans of contesting the Lok Sabha polls as an independent, but has been advised against doing it, though the possibility still remains depending on whom the BJP and Congress nominate as their South Goa candidates. Either way, the former Benaulim MLA has activated his workers and is awaiting the announcement of the candidates by both the national parties before taking a final call on his future course of action.

We are waiting for an update from Churchill regarding his plans for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and will update this post as and when he makes an announcement.

NEW DELHI, (PTI): The Congress government in Himachal Pradesh is ”not in danger” and will complete its five-year term, party sources claimed on Monday and indicated that state minister Vikramaditya Singh had spoken with the AICC leadership.

They also said the leadership has faith in Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and the work he has done till now. A change in leadership, therefore, seems unlikely for now, the sources said.

”The government is in majority and will serve the people of Himachal Pradesh for the full five years, and any attempt to crush the mandate with the help of money power will not succeed,” a party source involved in fire-fighting the political crisis in the state said.

Action has been taken against the rebel MLAs under the anti-defection law which prohibits the ”Aayaram-Gayaram” tactics, the sources said.

The people of Himachal Pradesh also do not like such politics, they added.

After the disqualification of six MLAs under the anti-defection law, the number of MLAs in the House now remains at 62 and the government has more support than the majority figure of 32, the sources claimed.

The BJP and rebel MLAs are only spreading false news about the government. The rebel MLAs themselves are ”apologising and sending feelers” they claimed.

The sources also said Minister Vikramaditya Singh, the son of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh Congress’ state unit president Pratibha Singh, has spoken with senior AICC leaders and conveyed his issues.

Chief Minister Sukhu’s objective has been to build a self-reliant Himachal Pradesh, with better education and health, and he is continuously working on it, the sources said.

The Congress sources have been highlighting the programmes undertaken under the Sukhu government such as the implementation of the old pension scheme for the welfare of employees, job creation and increased revenue of the state, to indicate that a change of guard in unlikely.

In a setback for the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP last Tuesday won the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat despite being in the minority with just 25 MLAs against 40 of the Congress as nine MLAs, including six from the Congress and three Independents, voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan.

Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania had on Thursday disqualified six Congress MLAs — Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto — for abstaining from voting on the Cut Motion and the Finance Bill.

After cross-voting by the rebels in the Rajya Sabha polls, Vikramaditya had announced his resignation from the Cabinet on Wednesday but softened his stand by the evening after meeting the Congress observers, who said that the resignation had been withdrawn. (PTI)

GWALIOR, (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will reach Morena district in Madhya Pradesh from Rajasthan’s Dholpur district on Saturday, a party functionary said.

Gandhi is scheduled to lead a road show once it reaches Gwalior on Saturday evening and also address a public meeting in Hazira, MP Congress leader KK Mishra told reporters.

”It will arrive in Morena at 1:30pm on Saturday from Dholpur in Rajasthan and will cover various parts of MP till March 6. On Sunday, he will interact with members of the tribal community in Morkheda,” he said.

”The yatra will enter Shivpuri at 2pm on Sunday. After covering areas in Guna, Rajgarh, Shajapur, Ujjain Dhar and Ratlam districts, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will re-enter Rajasthan,” Mishra added.

The yatra, which started in Manipur in the north east, will culminate in Mumbai after traversing 6,700 kilometres through 15 states. (PTI)