Party time for rebels-2

State in a In-fighting state Apart from Pune, the scene at the state level is also dismal. The biggest news of rivalry this time is that in the Amravati constituency. Sunil Deshmukh, a Congress minister in the state cabinet has accused President Pratibha Patil of misusing her position to get a ticket for her son Raosaheb Shekhawat. The party has denied a ticket to Deshmukh in favour of Shekhawat. Deshmukh has solace in the fact that various non-partisan...

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Party time for rebels-1

Rebels Having a Feast on Official Candidates Maharashtra, let alone Pune, is facing highest number of rebel candidates in the assembly elections. The state is especially known for its fighting spirit. But never in the history of electoral democracy was such a frenzy of candidates soliciting the votes from the electorates. What's worse, it is not limited to one party. I have already written about the rebellion of Anna Joshi from Kothrud constituency....

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Anna Leaves BJP! What is the difference?

 Will  desertion by Anna Joshi be a jolt to Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of Maharashtra Assembly polls? The answer is no, it is relatively a minor set back. It is nothing extra-ordinary what with large scale desertions and defection in all political parties in the state. Even though Anna Joshi is a a senior leader of the party and former MP of BJP. Yesterday, he announced that he is quitting the party and joining  NCP. He will be...

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Austerity! At what cost?

At the time when recession is officially lingering at receding line, the ministers and leaders of Congress party are having austerity drive. From the public elected 'heir-apparent' of country Rahul Gandhi to the non-committal Shashi Tharoor, everybody is coping with the cost cutting in his own ways. Media is untiringly picking up each and every piece of information disseminated from New Delhi. However, considering the wild card given by media to...

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The Talks for The Seats

Poltical parties in Maharashtra are entangled in the parleys for seat sharing. Can this be a reason for the deadlo...

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Nanasaheb Peshwa and Parvati

Today, September 17th marks the death anniversary according to Hindu calendar of Nanasaheb Peshwe, the third Peshwa in Maratha empire. Word Peshwe simply means the prime minister or head of minister council. Balaji Vishwanath was the first Peshwa was first Peshwa appointed by Shahu Maharaj, the grandson of Chhatrpati Shivaji and son of Chhatrapati Sambhaji. Balaji was succeeded by Bajirao I. Bajirao's son was Nanasaheb Peshwa. Most of the magnificence...

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Voices of Dissent in Congress

Are They Serious Enough? The voices of dissent have started to rise from the Congress party in Maharashtra. One of the first leader to raise the tone is Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar, who is enraged over non-inclusion in the candidates selection committee. Nilangekar is the former chief minister of Maharashtra and comes from Nilanga in the Latur district. PTI quotes him as saying : I met Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently and apprised her of the situation. I pointed out that neither myself nor former MPCC president N M Kamble were appointed...

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Confusion Party of Maharashtra

Even as the assembly elections fever is yet to catch up with public, political parties are finding it difficult to manage the unbearable tension. On the one hand, no party is sure as to whom it should align to. Secondly, the political atmosphere is so divided and obscure that no one has any idea of clicking it big this time. This is the most confusion times in Maharashtra.Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, ruling for almost ten years in the state, are still entangled in the seat sharing war. Congress wants NCP to blink first and it has justification...

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Aurangabad to Go dry on

measure aimed to avert Dengue menaceThe current rage in Maharashtra is H1N1 flu which is still called swine flu even though the World Health Organisation has recommended not to do so. With the casualties on account of this disease touching 100, it is hardly surprising that the media and people alike are obsessed with it. But then there are other diseases also which are claiming lives of citizens. These killer diseases are here each year but this...

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Could milk adulteration racket averted?

Western Maharashtra was shocked in the first week of August when a major racket of milk adulteration was unearthed. A combined raid by district food and adulteration administrations of Pune and Satara was carried out in Baramati and Phaltan. According to latest report, all eight samples of milk collected during the raids have been tested positive for adulteration. The question is: can this racket be avoided? And answer is: yes.According to preliminary estimates, the milk which was prepared in the collection centres in above two talukas was supplied...

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Election Preparation in Full Swing

The district administrations of Pune has completed process of removing banners and political ads from the public places, claimed district collector Chandrakant Dalvi today. Dalvi held a meeting of officers related to election work after which he addressed the media. This is the first sign of election process coming into full swin g in Pune. Dalvi informed that a quick response team has been formed to look into the strict implementation of election code of conduct. He said that data entry of the voter's list has been prepared. All the lists will...

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Remembering 9/11, the Indian way

Exactly eight years ago, I was working in the office. It was my first job in a media organisation which involved writing news from the press releases and also translating some stories. I was in the trade barely for two months having being joined the organisation in the month of June. Suddenly at about 7:30 PM, one of our reporters rose and said that something major has happened in US.  (Image Courtesy National 9/11 Memorial)When we turned on...

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Miraj not as peaceful

Iit was expected that the immersion procession in Miraj would be peaceful. But it was not to be. Today Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Rawate tried to enter Kolhapur city but was forbidden from doing so. According to a release from Neelam Gorhe, Shiv Sena leader, Rawate had gone there to see the situation. District administration arrested him and stopped from entering the district. Gorhe has demanded a high level enquiry into the matter....

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US diplomats will travel to Nanded

At least one city in Maharashtra will be visited by the American diplomats in coming month. The American diplomats are travelling all over India to participate in various cultural exchange programmes. The program started on September 8 and will go on till September 18, according to American Centre officials. As part of the 'America Day' celebration , the diplomats will visit 23 cities including Ahmedabad, Bhilai, Indore, Nanded, Raipur and Ujj...

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Burning Miraj Comes to Peace

Ganesh Immersion in City Tomorrow  Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other Hindu organisations have voiced their objection over the riots in Miraj and Sangli. According to press releases issued by the organisations, murder of Afzal Khan was one of the illustrious incidents of the history of Maharashtra and India. There is hardly any counterpoint against this argument.  The riots in the southern part of the state were a unfortunate development. ...

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Politics is family business in Maharashtra

State legislature assembly elections in Maharashtra are scheduled for October 13 in Maharashtra. All major parties in engaged in finalising the list of candidates. While the electoral clashes are heading towards theatrical and interesting, one bit of the polling is prominent. In each politicl party, the election is a family business. Leaders across the board have their offsprings or kins in the fray without a trace of remorse. Leading the way is Congress which makes an obvious choice for hereditary politics. Since the time of Indira Gandhi, Congress...

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The theater that is Maharashtra-Part 2

All these parties are already in the propaganda mode. While Congress-BJP alliance is harping on the development works in its ten year tenure, which is a classic case of self-eulogy, its rival alliance is also bent on giving prominence to Hindutva agenda. For a change, Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackerey has really well etched out a role for itself in the sad series of farmer's suicide. The party is also taking up the load shedding issue, easily overlooking the fact that it can help little in the issue even if it comes to power. Having set its target...

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The theater that is Maharashtra-Part 1

All kind of political manoeuvring is taking place in Maharashtra. With assembly election barely a month later and code of conduct in force, most of the dealings are taking place in back room discussions. This time the theatre is set in so fashion that one is having a feast of drama. There all players of all hues and colours as well as numbers in the fray. So nobody actually knows what will be the ending of this play. In the Lok Sabha elections, it was expected that ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will get a drubbing and Shiv...

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26 hours procession in Pune

Even after cancelling decorations and bypassing the show, Pune's Ganesh Mandals can not keep the procession limited to 24 hrs. The mandals have shown readiness to end the procession within 12 hours, but actually it lasted for 25 hrs. and 45 minutes. The procession had started at 12:00 PM yesterday and ended today at 11:45 AM. Even though many mandals came without any float; Nimbalkar Talim's procession was without vehicle at all, they could not end it within time. Onus lies with Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati, which is the centre of attraction because...

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Simple & Gracious Farewell to Ganesha

ganpati 011, originally uploaded by deshpande.devidas.City of Pune bid its favourite deity a simple yet graceful adieu. All the pomp and hoopla which accompanies the festival each year was absent this year. Even though the scare of H1N1 Flu had curtailed the festivities, it did not affect the festive mood of the mandal workers. The mandals had given way to the decorations and floats, which are hallmark of Pune's Ganesh Utsav. Instead, the mandals...

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Maharashtra's Power Companies Charged Up

Those whose eyes are blazed by the shine of fat pockets, security and safety of a government job is the thing to die for. With the current situation in industries almost grim, hardly anybody with suitable qualification can choose to be indifferent towards a job in quasi-government company. Even if that job does not have any glow like the ones in Information Technology industries have. For such people, state power companies of Maharashtra are offering too many jobs in coming days. The companies are moving with lightening speed to recruit new people...

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Elections Bring Respite

Thank god election commission has announced the date for election to Maharashtra state assembly. For the last many days, in fact about two months, every minister and politician made it sure that his photo and statement appear in the media each alternate day.Even yesterday, when the news of the election commission's announcement came by, many programs were scheduled in the city. Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had to cancel an inauguration program in the state reserve police force while guardian minister Ajit Pawar had to cancel his press conference...

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Should BJP levy entertainment tax?

The only way to bring a sense in the dramaAlmost all of last fortnight in media was consumed by the Jaswant Singh drama in Bharatiya Janata Party. Headlines were so full of his name that for the time, one could forget that there existed many grave problems in the country which required more attention than this matter. Scarcity of rains, issue of price rise...so many of them were left to be incorporated in the internal pages of print media or to fill the vacuum space in electronic media. Jaswant Singh, one may say confidently, is a lucky man. The...

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