Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole has said “traitors” from the party who cross-voted in the recent elections to 11 legislative council seats have been identified and will be punished.

“The same “traitors” had ensured the defeat of the Congress leader Chandrakant Handore in the council elections two years ago,” Mr. Patole claimed on July 13.

“A trap was laid this time and they have been identified. They will be punished so that no one dares to betray the party again,” Mr. Patole told reporters in Mumbai, without taking any name.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, while talking to reporters on July 14, said the Congress has accepted that cross-voting took place and they will take action accordingly.

“The Central government is going to observe the imposition of Emergency as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. Isn’t it unconstitutional to get MLCs elected by MLAs who are facing disqualification? Isn’t it unconstitutional to purchase MLAs by bribing them? BJP is the real murderer of the Constitution,” Mr. Raut alleged.

Following a split in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Shiv Sena (UBT) headed by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) had moved court seeking disqualification of MLAs of the parties led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

The ruling ‘Mahyuti’ in the State, comprising the Shiv Sena led by CM Shinde, the BJP and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP, on July 12 won all the nine seats it contested in the biennial elections to 11 seats in the legislative council.

The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) faced a setback as a candidate backed by Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) lost. At least seven Congress MLAs defied the party’s directive while voting, results showed.

“The Congress, which has 37 MLAs, had fixed a quota of 30 first preference votes for its candidate Pradyna Satav, and seven remaining votes were to go to Milind Narvekar, candidate of the ally Shiv Sena (UBT),” party sources earlier said.

Eventually, Mr. Satav got 25 and Narvekar 22 first preference votes, which meant at least seven Congress MLAs cross-voted. Jayant Patil of the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), supported by the NCP (SP), lost.

The 288-member legislative Assembly, with current strength of 274, was the electoral college for the council polls. Each winning candidate required 23 votes.

The BJP is the largest party in the Assembly with 103 members, followed by the Shiv Sena-38, NCP- 42, Congress-37, Shiv Sena (UBT)-15 and NCP (SP)-10.

Mumbai:

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has issued a legal notice to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut over a “defamatory” article which claimed that Mr Shinde tried to ensure the defeat of ally NCP’s candidates in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Sanjay Raut shared on X the legal notice dated May 28, adding that it was a “very interesting” and “funny political document”. Sources close to the chief minister confirmed that such a notice has been issued.

The notice said that in his column in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ on May 26, Mr Raut made a false statement that Chief Minister Shinde spent “unlimited amount of money” and distributed crores of rupees in each constituency. The article further claimed that Mr Shinde did all this to ensure the defeat of the candidates of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, it said.

These statements were not only false but “defamatory and scandalous”, and made to mislead the people and create unrest, the notice said.

“The defamatory news article has been published by you to get name, fame and political mileage for yourself and your so-called leader Shri Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray,” it said, asking Mr Raut to produce evidence to back his allegations.

If he could not do so, the Rajya Sabha member should apologise within three days or face criminal and civil proceedings, the notice said.

The BJP, Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP are partners in the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

 Businessman Sujit Patkar, reportedly a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, played a “key role” in the allotment of a civic contract to his partnership firm for running jumbo COVID-19 centres in Mumbai, the Enforcement Directorate said in its chargesheet.

As per the ED, Mr Patkar managed to gather prior information about the tender process for these centres due to his “proximity with politically exposed person” and of the total proceeds of crime of Rs 32.44 crore, an amount of Rs 2.81 crore was diverted into his personal bank account.

Besides Mr Patkar, the other accused named in the chargesheet include the firm Lifeline Hospital Management Services, its three partners and Dahisar jumbo Covid Centre dean Dr Kishore Bisure.

Mr Patkar and Mr Bisure were arrested under Prevention of Money Laundering Act provisions by the ED and are currently in judicial custody.

As per the ED chargesheet, Mr Patkar, one of the major partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services with 30 per cent share, invested only Rs 12,500 at the time of incorporation of the firm.

Mr Patkar indulged himself in criminal activities and hatched a conspiracy in connivance with other accused partners and officials of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and managed to obtain a tender/contract, the chargesheet said.

He managed to gather prior information about the tender process due to his proximity with “politically exposed person” and then he as well as his partners set up the firm to obtain the tender issued by civic authorities, the chargesheet stated.

“Patkar used to liaison with BMC officials and played a key role in the process of allotment of contract of manpower supply to Jumbo Covid facility at Dahisar and Worli to Lifeline Management Services,” it stated.

The ED’s chargesheet further said the accused partners, for undue personal financial gains, made a plan to under deploy medical staff in Dahisar and Worli Jumbo Covid facilities.

In pursuance of their plan, they gave instructions to their staff members deployed at the aforesaid Jumbo Covid Centres to create forged attendance records in line with the EOI (expression of interest) issued by the civic body.

As per the plan, there was huge under-deployment of medical staff, which had put the lives of the COVID-19 patients at risk, the chargesheet said.

It claimed the accused had submitted fake and fabricated attendance sheets and related records for Dahisar Jumbo Covid facility, whereas, with regard to the Worli centre, invoices were submitted to the civic body without any attendance data and staff records.

Mr Patkar, in connivance with other partners, intentionally did not reveal the cancellation of contract by Pune Municipal Region Development Authority, which had specified the firm’s lacunas and had also issued advisory not to give any further works to Lifeline Hospital Management Services in view of larger public interest, the ED chargesheet pointed out.

Obtaining payments to the tune of Rs 32.44 crore from the civic body as part of this contract created proceeds of crime, it said.

Of this PoC, an amount of Rs 2.81 crore was diverted in the personal bank account of Patkar between November 2020 and October 2022, the chargesheet further said.

This amount was mostly utilized in repayment of his personal (property and vehicle) loans and other expenses by projecting them as untainted funds, the chargesheet added.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)