MUMBAI:  A picture of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant sitting in the CM’s chair has gone viral, drawing Opposition barbs that Shrikant is a ‘super CM’ and that he should respect the dignity of the chair. Shrikant Shinde is a Lok Sabha MP.

“The Opposition is trying to malign my image. The place in the photo is our private residence in Thane, where my father and I have attended to people’s problems for years. It is not an official residence of the CM nor his government office,” said Shrikant. 

He said he was a two-term MP and was aware of the protocol. “Today, the CM  had a video conference, for which the ‘Maharashtra government’ board was kept behind the chair, but I did not know that. Someone has done mischief by secretly clicking photos and sharing them,” said the CM’s son.  In the picture, Shrikant Shinde, the MP from Kalyan, is seen sitting in a chair with a board with “Maharashtra Government-Chief Minister” written behind. 

In an apparent jibe at Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, he also said his father works for 18 to 20 hours a day, and “unlike earlier chief ministers who sat in one place, he is always on the move.” Thackeray had faced criticism for rarely stepping out of home when he was chief minister during the coronavirus pandemic. The state NCP’s youth wing leader Ravi Varpe shared the viral picture on social media. “Best wishes to Shrikant Shinde for becoming the super CM. In the absence of the Chief Minister, his son is in charge of the CM’s post. What kind of Raj Dharma is this?’’ 

Varpe claimed that the photo that he had uploaded in his tweet was from the CM’s official residence. “The chief minister is busy at Ganapati Mandals the responsibility of seeing the work of other people in the state has been given to Srikant Shinde,” he said.  Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MLC and spokesperson Manisha 
Kayande also criticised the CM over the viral picture.

‘My father always on the move, not like older CMs’

In an apparent jibe at Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, he also said his father works for 18 to 20 hours a day, and “unlike earlier chief ministers who sat in one place, he is always on the move.”  Thackeray had faced criticism for rarely stepping out of home  when he was chief minister during the coronavirus pandemic

JAIPUR: With the election for the next Congress party president fast approaching, everyone is now keen on knowing who will be the new Rajasthan Chief Minister.

Current CM Ashok Gehlot had met Rahul Gandhi in Kerala on Thursday and announced his decision to file a nomination for the post of AICC president. Gehlot had also confirmed that he will resign as CM if he becomes the new party president.

Against this backdrop, one of the main contenders Sachin Pilot reached Jaipur on Friday and started lobbying with MLAs.

He also met the Speaker of the Assembly and senior Congress leader CP Joshi.

Joshi, a former Union Minister, is seen as one of the major contenders should Gehlot win and move to Delhi. It is being said that Gehlot has recommended that Joshi be crowned his successor.

Meanwhile, Gehlot himself returned to Jaipur from Kerala via Shirdi late Friday evening.

In the morning, Pilot reached the assembly and met the MLAs supporting him, including Ved Prakash Solanki, Indraj Gurjar and Rajesh Pareek. He also met Gehlot supporters Girraj Malinga and independent MLA Khushveer Jojawar. After these meetings, Pilot smiled and left with folded hands.

He then reached Speaker Joshi’s chamber after meeting a dozen MLAs in the assembly lobby. At this meeting, Gehlot’s close aide Dharmendra Rathod, cabinet minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas and Gujarat Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma were also present.

Sources said that Pilot has started talking to Congress MLAs of all factions. These include those MLAs who were once considered his staunch opponents.

The meeting between Joshi and Pilot is especially being considered very important. Right now both these leaders are seen as frontrunners to replace Gehlot. Although the conversation between the two leaders has not been disclosed, it is believed that there has been a round of consultation between them regarding the future CM of Rajasthan.

Gehlot’s statement, in which he had spoken of the need to consider the sentiments of MLAs in the choice of a new CM, is believed to be behind Pilot’s aggressive lobbying.

At the moment, 80 percent of the MLAs are with Gehlot and about 20 percent are in favor of Pilot. Pilot is trying to woo the MLAs in the Gehlot camp away in his favor.

The Pilot camp also wants Gehlot to leave the CM chair before he is crowned as the President of AICC because they fear that he may create difficulties otherwise.

When asked in Kerala about who will succeed him if the CM’s post falls vacant in Rajasthan, Gehlot had said the “decision about the next CM will be taken through a proper process. Sonia Gandhi and general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken will decide together”.

AGARTALA: Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Thursday won the byelection to the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat, a poll official said here.ADVERTISEMENTAds by 

Deb, who has been recently made the BJP in-charge of Haryana, polled 43 votes- 36 of the saffron party and seven of its ally, the IPFT, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kiran Gitte said.

All 15 CPI(M) legislators in the state cast their votes in favour of their nominee Bhanu Lal Saha, the former finance minister.

Interestingly, Congress’s lone MLA Sudip Roy Barman abstained from voting.

State Congress president Birajit Sinha Said “Since we fielded no candidate, the party had requested Barman to skip the voting process.

” The seat had fallen vacant as Manik Saha, on being made the chief minister, resigned to contest an Assembly bypoll.

Taking to social media, Deb expressed his gratitude to the legislators of the BJP and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) for electing him as Rajya Sabha MP from the state.

He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for giving him an opportunity to represent Tripura in the Upper House of Parliament.

“With the blessings of Mata Tripurasundari, I will continue to serve the beloved people of Tripura till my last breath,” the former CM said in a Facebook post.

CHENNAI/NEW DELHI/BENGALURU/VIJAYAWADA/KOCHI: In one of their biggest joint operations against terror funding and terror activities, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested 106 activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) from 93 locations across 15 states, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi even as top officials met to discuss a likely ban on the organisation.

During the coordinated nationwide operation, which began at around 3:30 am, PFI Chairman O M A Salam, national general secretary V P Nasarudeen Elamaram and the organisation’s Delhi unit head Parvez Ahmed, among others, were taken into custody. Salam was picked up from his home at Kerala’s Malappuram, after the place was searched. Ahmed’s residence in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar was also raided.

Raids were also carried out in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur. The NIA said 45 of the total arrests were made by the agency. Even as the raids and arrests were underway, Union Home Minister Amit Shah met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and NIA Director-General Dinkar Gupta to discuss details of the case, the likely fallout and implications.

“While 19 accused have been arrested from Kerala, 11 have been arrested from Tamil Nadu, 7 from Karnataka, 4 from Andhra Pradesh, 2 from Rajasthan, 1 each from UP and Telangana,” an NIA statement read. Among the arrested leaders in Kerala were PFI’s state president C P Mohammed Basheer, national council member P Koya and senior functionaries Jaseer K P, Shafeer K P, E Abu Backer, E M Abdul Rahiman, Najumudeen, Sainuddeen T S, Yahiya Koya Thangal, K Muhammedali, C T Sulaiman, P K Usman, Karamana Ashraf Moulavi, Sadiq Ahmed, Shihas, Ansari P and M M Mujeeb.

The 11 PFI functionaries arrested in Tamil Nadu were identified as Syed Ishaaq, Advocate Khalid Mohammed, A M Idris, Mohamed Abuthahir, S Khaja Maideen, Yasar Arafat, Barakathullah, Fayaz Ahamed, M Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Mohammed Yousuf and A S Ismail. 

In Karnataka, the NIA, with help of local police searched suspects’ locations in Bengaluru and Mangaluru and arrested Anis Ahmed, Afsar Pasha, Abdul Wahid Sait, Yasar Arafath Hasan, Mohammed Shakif alias Shakif, Mohammed Farooq ur Rahman and Shahid Nasir.

Sources said documents, cash, sharp-edged weapons and large number of digital devices were seized during the raids. The NIA is investigating a total of 19 PFI-related cases, including five registered on Thursday. 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shashi Tharoor may get a berth in the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, regardless of the fate of the election for the party president post. The decision was taken when the Thiruvananthapuram MP met AICC interim chief Sonia Gandhi earlier this week

“Tharoor has always ensured he maintains a warm relationship with the Gandhi family even when he was with G23. The Gandhis too appreciate his potential and are aware of the harm he is capable of inflicting if he decides to leave Congress,” said a source, adding that Gandhis believe that the CWC berth is enough to keep Tharoor in good spirits.

The Gandhi family has also managed to convince Ashok Gehlot to step down as Rajasthan CM and hand over the post to bete noire Sachin Pilot. Gehlot is likely to resign around the AICC polls as per the agreement. Apparently, pressure tactics by the 71-year-old to make loyalist and Rajasthan speaker C P Joshi the CM did not work.

“Gehlot tried his best to convince Rahul that he can handle both the posts. However, Rahul made it clear it was not possible,” said a source. “Priyanka Gandhi too was adamant that Pilot be made CM,” he said. Rahul made this clear in Kochi when he mentioned the ‘one-man, one-post’ decision taken at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir.

“There is a feeling that Pilot was sidelined in Rajasthan Congress since Gehlot became CM for the third time in 2018. Pilot cannot be sidelined anymore as the Rajasthan assembly elections are due in December 2023. Moreover, Rahul’s padayatra will be in the state for 21 days. If the imbroglio in Congress continues, it will tarnish his yatra,” said a source close to Pilot.

Another source said Gehlot, in his ‘desperation’, is trying every trick in the book to ensure Pilot does not succeed him. “There are attempts from Gehlot camp to prolong his resignation until Diwali or till the December elections. However, this is not likely to succeed as Rahul would want the issue to be resolved before the yatra reaches Rajasthan during October-November,” said the source.

Rahul’s advice to new AICC chief

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his advice to whoever becomes the new AICC head would be that it is not just an organisational post but an ideological one. “It (the post) is a belief system,” he told reporters in Kochi 

NEW DELHI: When Russian President Vladimir Putin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the SCO Summit in Samarkand on Friday last, he said he would end the war in Ukraine soon.-ADVERTISEMENT-Ads by 

In less than a week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reaffirmed that Russia is considering ending the conflict. Erdogan, who was present at the SCO Summit and had a bilateral with Modi, said on Tuesday his impressions after talks with Putin suggest there could be an end to the war, beginning with the ceasefire.

In a related development, separatist leaders of Ukraine’s Russian-controlled areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia announced dates for a referendum to formally join the Russian Federation. Reports also suggest that Russia is mulling and swapping 200 prisoners with Ukraine. Turkey has been actively trying to find some middle ground.

“Together, we need to find a reasonably practical diplomatic solution that will give both sides a dignified way out of the crisis,” Erdogan told the opening session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. During the SCO Summit, Modi had told Putin that “this was no era for war”.

“We will do our best to stop this as soon as possible,’’ Putin said in response. “The war will end when both sides feel that it is best that they can get out of it. A similar situation occurred in March when the two sides conditionally reached an agreement, but it didn’t go through because one side decided it could get a better deal,” said P S Raghavan, former Ambassador to Russia.

Meanwhile, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to dominate the proceedings in the UNGA in New York this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the UNGA on Wednesday to accelerate weapons and aid deliveries.