Shiv Sena Is a Tiger Turned Tortoise - Ajit Pawar

With his days in opposition, Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is making most of this opportunity. Speaking in Jalana in Marathwada region, he took potshots on Shiv Sena, a party that is sharing power with Bharatiya Janata Party with an extreme awkwardness. Putting his finger at Shiv Sena where it hurts most, Pawar said that Shiv Sena was a tiger during Balasaheb Thackeray’s days but has been since been reduced to be a tortise.

Shiv Sena has not become even a sheep or a hare, but tortoise that thrusts its neck and doing nothing, the leader said. A march was organized at Jafarabad in Jalana district as part of NCP’s campaign Halla Bol, that seeks to attack the ruling BJP for its alleged failures on all fronts, under the leadership of Pawar Jr. The statement came during the meeting after the march.
Targetting Shiv Sena for its precarious situation, Ajit Pawar said that the party threatened a hundred times during three years to leave the ruling alliance, but it couldn't resist the lure of power that has come to its way after full 15 years!

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Maharashtra Day Was An Emotional Occasion

Water and soil from various parts of Pune district was collected at Shaniwar Wada sent to Mumbai for main function of Maharashtra’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Even as various parties and organisations vied to hog headlines celebrating the 50th anniversary of foundation of Maharashtra, the affair became more and more emotional. In Mumbai, Governor K Sankaranarayanan and Chief Minister Ashok Chavan led the state in paying tributes to the 105 martyrs of the movement that led to the creation of the state. They paid floral tributes to the martyrs of Samyukta Maharashtra movement at the Hutatma Chowk. In other parts of the state also, government machinery and political parties organised symbolic events to mark the occasion.

Maharashtra State Congress felicitated veteran activists who took part in the United Maharashtra movement prior to 1960. A function organised by Shiv Sena concluded few hours ago in which melody queen Lata Mangeshkar relived the mesmerizing moments of original ceremony on 50 years ago. She, alongwith many schoolchildren and chorus, recited the Maharashtra Geet (Song of Maharashtra). Sena chief Bal Thackeray was present at the event.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena could not lag behind in celebrating the milestone of the state. It had organised a grand program yesterday in Mumbai in which all stalwarts of the state, from Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar to Babasaheb Purandare were felicitated. Today, the party activists took out rallies in Pune displaying the great tradition of the state.

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Maharashtra Bent On Making Liquor

It seems that Maharashtra government is hell bent on making wine or liquor. After its ambitious and controversial scheme to make liquor from the foodgrains was mire into controversy, it is now considering proposals to make wine from wild berries (Karvand), found mainly in coastal Konkan region.

"We will positively consider any proposals to make wine from wild-berries and if possible... capital in the 1:9 ratio would be made available for the business," Water Resources Minister Ajit Pawar informed the Legislative Council today.
The government's intention is to help farmers make profit, he said.

Only last week the state government announced in the Council it would consider a proposal for making liquor from jowar, cashew fruit, 'jamun' (java plum) and 'chikoo'. In an apparent reference to the row over production of liquor from foodgrains, Pawar said, these matters have been unnecessarily politicised.

In the past, the government even announced to make alcohol from bamboom shoots. “This will enable the Adivasis to earn extra money,” was the government’s contention.

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Oath Taking Replaces Incertainty

After 15 days of lingering incertainty, there is a government finally an the state. The 38 members strong council of ministers tookl oath of the secrecy today. The Congress has 18 ministers and NCP 20. NCP ministers are expected to take oath on at once  and Congress ministers would be sworn in two phases.

Pune, including district has got only three ministers in the new cabinet while city will be represented by only one representative. Ramesh Bagve will be the only minister in cabinet. Bagave has been elected from Pune Cantonment constituency. He got 65638 votes to defeat his rival Sadanand Shetty of Shis Sena. Shetty managed to get 28313 votes. He had the biggest winning margin from all eight assembly segments in Pune.

Ajit Pawar and Harshvardhan Patil are other two minister related to the city. Dilip Walse Patil, who managed finance ministry in the last government has been axed this time.

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Raj Charges Up The Scene

He enters the place where a grand stage is erected. As he put his foot on the ground towards the direction of the stage, whole atmosphere comes alive with the sound of crackers and bursting of fires in the sky. To top this lighting, a cumulative voice soars new height with each passing moment hailing the young leader. As he comes to the microphone, there is a pin drop silence. Next one hours, the crowd of at least over 50 thousands hears to the leader. He minces no words in deriding his opponents and steals the show by hitting a cord with each member of the crowd.

This is Raj Thackerey for you.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief has taken centrestage in the ensuing assembly elections in the state. He is the clear winner of this political game, at least for now, even before the assembly elections are over. Every party leader is on his backfoot while coping with the popularity of Raj. This has led them to go into denial mode. Surprisingly, each one expects that MNS will eat away share of other party?s votes. After affecting the election results in the parliamentary elections just six months ago, nobody is ready to undermine MNS as far as electioneering is concerned. His party is seen as a potential Shiv Sena in the making

It is ironic that foremost among Raj?s opponents turned out to be Shiv Sena of which he was a prominent leader just three years ago. After being sidelined in SS by his uncle and SS chief Balasaheb Thackerey, who favoured his own son over Raj, he chose to trade his own path. He formed MNS in May 2006 and chose Marathi pride as its main plank. This was the same agenda on which SS worked on for four decades. It did not afford to lose his issue. Adding fuel to fire, Uddhav, the heir apparent of SS did not have the charisma or following which Raj inherited from Balasaheb.

Just yesterday, there were three rallies in Pune: that of Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar and Raj Thackerey. Political analysts unanimously agreed that the most lively and most crowded of all these meeting was addressed by Raj. This when he held three successive rallies in the city on a single day. How many candidates of MNS can be elected is not that important. What is important is the relation he establishes with the youths-his core voters. No other leader in the state is able to charm the youths like Raj does. This is the reason why Ajit Pawar today said that NCP will not shy away a government with the help from MNS. Since he knows that the clout Raj enjoys is surely going to tore apart political equations, made by Congress-NCP as well as Sena-BJP.

(To be continued)

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