Mumbai News Live Updates: ‘Found many irregularities in Maharashtra elections’ says Rahul Gandhi in Joint Press Conference

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday endorsed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegations of irregularities in the Maharashtra assembly elections, claiming that even the Bharatiya Janata Party did not find its victory believable.

Gandhi, at his press conference in Delhi, "busted the farce" of the BJP-led Mahayuti's majority in the state, he said.

"Just as the Opposition could not believe that its defeat was genuine, the BJP did not find its own victory believable," said Thackeray, speaking at a party program here.

The BJP took a full month to decide the chief minister despite winning a thumping majority, and the ruling coalition is still not able to resolve disputes over the appointment of district guardian ministers, he said.

The BJP won 132 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly polls held in November 2024, followed by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena (57) and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (41).

On the Opposition's side, the Congress won 16, Shiv Sena (UBT) 20, and NCP (SP) 10 seats.

Thackeray, in his speech, dared Shinde, now a deputy Chief Minister, to try and poach MPs of the Sena (UBT).

"I challenge you to take away even a single Shiv Sena worker without using the police and government machinery and central agencies," said the former chief minister. (PTI)

The Bombay High Court on Friday stayed till March 2024 a Canara Bank order that classified industrialist Anil Ambani’s loan account as fraudulent. The account was related to his firm Reliance Communications, which is undergoing insolvency proceedings.

The order was issued on November 8 last year in light of a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) master circular that permitted banks to declare any account as a fraudulent account and laid down guidelines for the same.

The court sought to know from the RBI what actions it proposed to take against the banks for issuing orders declaring loan accounts as fraudulent without hearing the parties or borrowers, defying the master circular and Supreme Court rulings. Read More

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday hit out at Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the alleged discrepancies in the state Assembly elections last year, saying that the Congress leader was “covering up his party’s failures” ahead of the Delhi election results.

“Rahul Gandhi is doing cover firing. The Delhi Assembly election results will be declared on Saturday. By questioning voting, he is covering up the failures of his party, which is likely to be wiped out in the Delhi polls,” Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis was responding to Gandhi’s allegation that voter turnout in Maharashtra was above the total adult enrolment in the state. Read More

The financial aid given to a woman under the Maharashtra government's Manodhairya scheme for rape victims is being taken back after she retracted her testimony during the trial, resulting in the acquittal of the accused, a Thane District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) official said on Friday.

The Manodhairya Yojana was introduced by the state government in 2013 to provide financial assistance and rehabilitation to victims of rape, sexual assault, and acid attacks.

The woman had accused her brother-in-law of raping her in 2017 while her husband was in hospital for the treatment of a mental illness.

The woman, 40 at the time, filed a case at Kalyan police station, and in 2022 received Rs 25,000 under the Manodhairya scheme, while the remaining Rs 75,000 was kept in a fixed deposit in her name, DLSA secretary Ishwar Suryavanshi said.

"During the trial in the district and sessions court, she failed to support the prosecution and contradicted her earlier statements, resulting in the accused being acquitted. However, she still approached DLSA to withdraw the FD of Rs 75,000 before maturity. This was brought to the notice of a committee headed by Chief District and Sessions Judge SB Agrawal, which ruled that the assistance granted to her must be recovered," he said.

"The policy mandates that victims must cooperate with the prosecution and remain consistent in their testimony to retain the financial aid. Any deviation allows the government to reclaim the amount along with prevailing interest rates. Consequently, the assistance of Rs 1 lakh is being recovered. The DLSA has issued her a notice for the same," Suryavanshi informed. (PTI)