Zeeshan Shaikh

Violence first broke out at Maniar Mohalla where Muslims had gathered at a mosque in Maniar Mohalla for Shab-e-Mehraj prayers at 9.15 pm during Janata Curfew.

While mosques, including the famous Haji Ali Dargah and Mahim Dargah and those belonging to the Shia community, disallowed gatherings, Friday Namaaz was prayed in congregation as per tradition.

While economists for weeks have been warning about a possible disruption that coronavirus scare could cause to the economy, it is only now that its effects, in form of an apparent slowdown, are manifesting for businesses in Mumbai.

Automakers in India transitioning to BS6 emission norms had already started to feel the pinch as the parts that they had been sourcing from outside India were impacted due to the current global economic lockdown.

While Pathan does not have his own support base, the growing adulation among Muslim youth for the Owaisi brothers helped him win the 2014 polls. Pathan won the constituency which then had 2.7 lakh voters by polling only 25,000 votes.

Capable, considerate, Ashwini Bhide was seen as having put Mumbai Metro on track in her five-year tenure — till she ran aground over Aarey row. Is it wrong to tie an officer so closely to a project, or was the mistake hers in identifying herself with one party? And is her transfer anything but routine?

Many senior officers told The Indian Express that their initial assumption was that the protesters, who had started gathering on Sunday midnight following the attack on students on JNU campus, would disperse after a couple of hours.

According to the ruling coalition’s arrangement, the Shiv Sena’s quota is 15, including the Chief Minister, the NCP’s 16 and the Congress’s 12. The NCP has seven dynasts as Ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, followed by the Shiv Sena with three.

On Monday, Nawab Malik and Hasan Mushrif of the NCP and Aslam Shaikh of the Congress were sworn-in as Cabinet ministers.

Even Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray seemed a little surprised that he and his two new-found allies, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), had managed to achieve what they had.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari Tuesday night invited Uddhav Thackeray to take the oath of office and secrecy at 6.40 pm on Thursday at the Shivaji Park in Dadar after he received a letter from the Maha Vikas Aghadi which stated it had the support of 166 MLAs.

Running out of options and facing defeat in the trust vote after NCP leader Ajit Pawar resigned as Deputy Chief Minister following the Supreme Court order, Fadnavis too threw in the towel, saying he no longer had majority — the shortest tenure of a government in Maharashtra.

Ajit had last week seemingly brought down the curtains on his association with NCP, by dramatically breaking away from family, dynasty and the political legacy of his uncle to chart an independent course as an ally of the BJP.

His MLAs fearful of Ajit whip, Sharad Pawar says not one of them will be disqualified.

Claiming that most of its MLAs are in touch with the party, the NCP on Sunday released separate videos and statements by four of its MLAs. The MLAs are among the five, apart from Ajit Pawar, whom the party could not make contact with until Saturday.

While Ajit is embracing a strategy remarkably similar to the one used by Pawar, who had rebelled against his mentor Vasantdada Patil to form his own government in the 70s, the similarity between the two ends there.

Ajit, who considered himself the heir-apparent to the NCP chief, had to brush aside calls that he was insecure about his cousin Supriya Sule’s entry into electoral politics in the 2009 Parliamentary elections.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar announces consensus on Shiv Sena chief as Maharashtra Chief Minister; Uddhav Thackeray says other issues being sorted out.

Ties with BJP have been strained. But is that what explains the Shiv Sena going for broke in Maharashtra? Or is it part of the churning within the party, seeking to expand its base and in midst of a generation change, seven years after Bal Thackeray’s death? The Indian Express report on a new Maharashtra power balance