1. Ahead of Cabinet Expansion, Cong Seeks Exchange of Dept
With the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) likely to get the home department in exchange for another portfolio with the Shiv Sena, the Congress, too, has sought a department with rural connect ahead of the expansion of the cabinet on December 30. The party wants rural development, agriculture or cooperation department in exchange for one of the three departments it holds – revenue, public works and energy. A senior Congress leader said the demand has been put forth to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. After Man Tonsured, Aaditya Thackeray to Shiv Sena: Stay Calm While Dealing With Trolls
After Shiv Sena workers shaved a man’s head in Wadala for making derogatory comments about Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, party leader and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday urged Sainiks to remain calm and restrained while dealing with “trolls” and not take the law in their hands.
Aaditya, in a social media post, said that he “learnt of an untoward, angry reaction to a nasty, low life troll, who has used uncivil language towards the Chief Minister’s effort to maintain religious harmony and remove fear from Maharashtra about Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)”. “Law and order is a subject of the police and shouldn’t be taken into anyone’s hands,” he remarked.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. MP and MLA From Hingoli Embarrass Sena on CAA
A Shiv Sena MP and an MLA from Hingoli have put the party in an embarrassing position by supporting the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA). While Sena MLA and district unit president Santosh Bangar participated in a rally in support of the CAA, its MP Hemant Patil wrote a letter to district collector backing the controversial Act.
Bangar, who represents Kalamnuri in Hingoli district, participated in a march in support of CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Tuesday. Patil in his letter to the district collector said, “I regret that due to meeting called by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on various issues related to Hingoli district, I am unable to attend the rally in support of CAA and NRC. I have voted in favour of the CAA in the Lok Sabha. Shiv Sena has always been a Hindutva party, and we have professed the cause of Hindutva aggressively. I am writing this letter to express my support for CAA.”
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
4. 2 More Held for Attack on Shiv Sena Leader
Two more persons were recently arrested in connection with firing on a Shiv Sena leader inside a temple in Tagore Nagar, Vikhroli, on December 19.
Krishnadhar Singh, 20, was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch from Madhya Pradesh and Anand Phadtare, 26, from Thane. The accused were produced before a local court on Wednesday and were remanded in police custody till January 1.
Crime branch sources stated that the attack was made at the behest of gangster Prasad Pujari “to create terror” and prove “supremacy over the area.” Pujari is believed to be abroad.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Kashmiri Actor Harassed in Flight, Court Reserves Judgment Till Jan 7
The Dindoshi sessions court on Tuesday reserved its judgment till January 7 in a case against a Mumbai-based businessman, who has been accused of sexually harassing an actor on board a Delhi-Mumbai flight in 2017.
A resident of Jammu & Kashmir, the victim, who was a minor at the time of the incident, has not been re-examined by the court, as the police claimed she did not respond to their attempts to contact her. While the actor and her mother had deposed before the court in January, when she was summoned by the court for a second time in September to identify the accused, she did not appear before it.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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