This is an archive article published on November 18, 2019
Maharashtra: Sharad Pawar to meet Sonia today; leaders to take call on ‘alternative govt’
Pawar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to meet in New Delhi on Monday to take a final call on joining hands with the Shiv Sena to form the state government, according to sources.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray pays tribute to party founder Bal Thackeray at Shivaji Park on his death anniversary on Sunday. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)
Amid talks of government formation in Maharashtra, the NCP on Sunday held its core committee meeting in Pune, which was presided over by party chief Sharad Pawar. Other leaders like state party chief Jayant Patil, Ajit Pawar, Dhananjay Munde, and MPs Supriya Sule and Sunil Tatkare were also present.
Pawar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to meet in New Delhi on Monday to take a final call on joining hands with the Shiv Sena to form the state government, according to sources.
After the core committee meeting, party leader Nawab Malik said, “The NCP and Congress chiefs will meet in Delhi on Monday and decide on the future plan, which will be about providing an alternative government”.
Malik said the common minimum programme (CMP), which was drafted by the two parties in consultation with the Shiv Sena, would certainly be part of the discussion, but “we believe government formation and future roadmap will be the crux of their discussion”.
He added that the NCP was confident that a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government will soon take charge in the state. “After the meeting of the two party chiefs, other leaders of both the parties are also expected to meet in Delhi on Tuesday,” he said.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel have already discussed the issue, when a Congress delegation visited Mumbai last week. Uddhav and Sonia Gandhi have also spoken to each other.
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After the core meeting, NCP state chief Jayant Patil claimed that several BJP MLAs were in touch with the party. “Many BJP MLAs, especially those who had left NCP before the polls, are in touch with us. They want to return to the party,” he said.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said no formula of power sharing has been decided between the state leaders. “There is lot of speculation in the media but those are mere speculations. No formula of power sharing has been decided,” he said.
Chavan also denied that the Congress was insisting on the deputy chief minister’s post. “We want to stop the BJP from coming to power. It has been practising vendetta politics, targeting Congress and NCP leaders and talking of finishing off the Congress. The party cannot remain a mere spectator. The BJP needs a befitting reply,” he said, adding that he was confident that a final decision will be taken this week.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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