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Amit Shah – Uddhav Thackeray meeting: BJP chief fails to get Shiv Sena back on board

BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday failed to get Shiv Sena back into the NDA fold for 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Shah met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as part of the ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ (Contact for Support) campaign on Wednesday. The two-hour meeting was a special case: the BJP is meeting all other NDA constituents today (Thursday, June 6) to sort out any issues or differences and work out arrangements for fighting 2019 Lok Sabha polls together.
Thackeray, however, did not budge. The Shiv Sena stuck to its stance of fighting elections on its own. BJP’s embarrassment at its master tactician Shah’s failure was apparent in the silence of the party on the outcome of the meeting. Even much of the news media refrained from reporting it.
However, a few media outlets reported Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut as telling mediapersons that his party had not changed its stance.
“The decision to contest all elections in future was taken by the party’s National Executive. How can any outsider come and influence it?” Raut said.
However, he said Thackeray will make the party’s stand clear at his public meeting scheduled later on Thursday in Palghar, the Lok Sabha seat won by the BJP last week, which saw relations between the two allies plummet to an all-time low.
To drive home the point further, said media reports, the Sena has announced its candidates for the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections to Mumbai and Konkan Graduates Constituencies.
The BJP has also declared its candidates for the 25 June polls.
On its part, the BJP has displayed an air of confidence, with several leaders optimistic that the two oldest allies will join hands not only for the Lok Sabha but also the Maharashtra Assembly elections, both scheduled in 2019.
A report by news agency ANI, in fact, ran a report quoting BJP sources saying ” Amit Shah-Uddhav Thackeray meeting turns out ‘positive’.
“Shah and Thackeray held a ‘positive’ meeting at the latter’s residence ‘Matoshree’ in Mumbai, said BJP sources on Wednesday,” ANI reported.
“Meeting between BJP and Shiv Sena at ‘Matoshree’ was positive. This is the beginning of reducing tensions between both the parties. Two or three meetings are expected to happen in the coming days,” BJP sources told ANI, said the report.
In another ANI report, however, Sanjay Raut was quoted as saying, “We know what the agenda of Amit Shah ji is but Shiv Sena has passed a resolution that we’ll contest all upcoming elections on our own. There will be no change in that resolution.”
The signs were there even before the meeting. Hours before the crucial meeting between BJP national president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray on Monday, the junior partner of the ruling coalition at the Centre and in Maharashtra took a jibe at the BJP’s ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ campaign, calling it ‘too little, too late’.
A report in FinancialExpress.com quoted Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut as saying that the BJP should have done this much earlier and attributed the latest outreach on part of the senior partner as a fallout of its drubbing in bypolls.
“For ‘sampark’ we had to wait for four years… and to start this ‘sampark abhiyan’, BJP had to lose several bypolls,” he said, asserting that there was no change in the Shiv Sena’s stand that it will fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections alone.
To a question on whether the party will give its decision a second thought if Shah seeks Shiv Sena’s support for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he replied, “We have taken a decision that in 2019 Shiv Sena will contest independently. Our party has taken a decision we are firm on our party’s stand.”
Relations between the two parties have been strained and ties between the two alliance partners deteriorated further following Sena’s defeat in the Palghar Lok Sabha bypolls, prompting an angry Sena to describe the BJP as its ‘biggest political enemy’.
For the time being, the Sena continues to be a part of the NDA governments in Maharashtra and the Centre. The Shiv Sena has 12 Ministers (5 Cabinet ranks and 7 MoS ranks) in the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra. In the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the party has just one representation – Anant Geete, the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
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Watch: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde drives a tractor at cleanliness drive at Juhu Beach
Maharastra Chief Minister Shinde inspected the paddy crop damaged due to unseasonal rain at Tarsa in Nagpur district. Deputy Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis accompanied CM Shinde and Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday, paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi in Mumbai. He also participated in a cleanliness drive at Juhu Beach A video circulating on social media shows Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde driving a tractor while participating in the cleanliness drive at Juhu Beach.
The video has got 60,700 views on X(Formerly Twitter). Large number of comments started coming on the social media post. One user said this whole thing is a one day drama. Another user said this is a foolish gimmick by the chief minister.
Earlier on Thursday Shinde inspected the paddy crop damaged due to unseasonal rain at Tarsa in Nagpur district. Deputy Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis accompanied CM Shinde and Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde. Besides Mauda Taluka, large scale damage has been reported in Ramtek Parshivani taluka.
In Nagpur district a total of 124 villages have been affected by rain, 852 hectares of crop has been damaged Earlier on November 27, Natrionalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule urged the Maharashtra government to help the farmers after unseasonal rains damaged crops across the state of Maharashtra.
Sule said Maharshtra is standing at a difficult turn. She said a lot of damage has been caused by untimely rains. She said everybody should start to work with sensitivity for the state and farmers. She requested the Maharashtra government to immediately call a team from Delhi, and a full inspection should be carried out.
Sule said the central government should give more funds to Maharashtra. She said wherever farmers have incurred losses, the loans should be waved off. She said she is going to present this issue in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Heavy rains on Sunday had caused heavy damage to the crops including leafy vegetables, sugarcane, tomatoes, onions and grapes.
India News
Veteran actor Leelavathi passes away: PM Modi, Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar pay tribute to late actor
PM Modi took to X(formerly Twitter) to mourn the late actor. He said he was saddened to hear the passing of the legendary kannada film actor personality Leelavathiji. He said she was a true icon of cinema and she graced the silver screen with her versatile acting in numerous films.

Kannada film industry veteran Leelavathi passed away. She was 85 years old. She had been admitted to private hospital in Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bengaluru. She was suffering from many diseases due to her old age. Her son Vinod Raj told the media that he is now left alone. He thanked chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister DK Shivkumar for getting her admitted to the hospital.
PM Modi took to X(formerly Twitter) to mourn the late actor. He said he was saddened to hear the passing of the legendary kannada film actor personality Leelavathiji. He said she was a true icon of cinema and she graced the silver screen with her versatile acting in numerous films. PM Modi said her diverse roles and remarkable talent will always be remembered and admired. He said his thoughts were with her family and admirers.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah paid his final tribute to the mortal remains of veteran Kannada legendary actress Leelavathi at Ravindra Kalakshetra. He said he had grown up watching Leelavathi’s films. He said she was a perfect artist and brought life to every role she played. He said her acting was still in front of her eyes. He said along with acting she was deeply involved in social work.
He said he was deeply saddedned by the death of Leelavathi, who had always adopted the saying that kindness is the root of religion. He said may her departed soul rest in peace. Siddaramaiah said the news of the passing away of veteran kannada actor Leelavathi is painful. He said just last week on hearing about her illness he visited her house and enquired about her health and talked to her son Vinod Raj.
The Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivkumar visted the mortal remains of the veteran actor Leelavathi at Rabindra Kalakshetra today and paid her last respects and condoled with her family including her son Vinod Raj.
India News
Akbaruddin Owaisi takes oath as pro-tem speaker of Telangana assembly
Owaisi who took the oath in the name of Allah, will later administer oath to newly elected members of the House. Ministers D.Sridhar Babu, Tummala Nageshwara Rao, Seethakka , former minister and BRS leader T Harish Rao and other attended the ceremony

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeem (AIMIM) MLA Akbarudin Owaisi on Saturday took oath as pro-tem speaker of the newly-elected Telangana State Assembly. Governor Tamilsai Soundararajan took the oath to him at Raj Bhavan at a ceremony attended by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and speaker of previous assembly Pocharam Srinivas Reddy.
Owaisi who took the oath in the name of Allah, will later administer oath to newly elected members of the House. Ministers D.Sridhar Babu, Tummala Nageshwara Rao, Seethakka , former minister and BRS leader T Harish Rao and other attended the ceremony. According to a notification issued by Governor, Owaisi will perform the duties of the speaker till a speaker is elected under Article 178 of the constitution of India.
Being the senior most member of the assembly, the AIMIM legislator has been appointed as the Pro-tem speaker. In 2018, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan was made protem speaker. In the just concluded state elections he was elected from Chandrayangutta constituency in Hyderabad for a sixth consecutive term. This is the second consecutive time that a MLA of AIMIM has been appointed as Protem speaker. In 2018, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan was made protem Speaker.
The Pro-tem Speaker serves a temperory role, officiating the assembly session until the-elected members are sworn in and a speaker is elected. Once the assembly speaker is elected, the pro-tem speaker’s duties end, which marks the beginning of regular legislative activities under the new leadership.
Telanagana BJP today boycotted the oath ceremony for the newly elected MLAs, objecting to AIMIM’s Akbaruddin Owaisi being appointed Protem Speaker of the state assembly. The Pro-tem speaker is tasked with administering oath to the new legislators.
BJP MLA T Raja Singh, who won from Goshamahal in last month’s assembly elections, said in a video message that he would never take oath as long as he is alive in front of AIMIM. He said he would take oath only after a full term speaker is appointed.
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