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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Mahayuti struggles with seat-sharing formula

Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti alliance is currently navigating a treacherous political minefield. With the crucial Legislative Council elections rapidly approaching, deep-seated differences over seat-sharing have surfaced. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday offered a candid admission of these unresolved disputes. His statements underscore the immense pressure on the coalition partners. The state is preparing to vote for sixteen council seats and one bypoll seat in Nagpur. Voting is...

Mahayuti struggles with seat-sharing formula

Mumbai: The ruling Mahayuti alliance is currently navigating a treacherous political minefield. With the crucial Legislative Council elections rapidly approaching, deep-seated differences over seat-sharing have surfaced. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday offered a candid admission of these unresolved disputes. His statements underscore the immense pressure on the coalition partners. The state is preparing to vote for sixteen council seats and one bypoll seat in Nagpur. Voting is scheduled for June 18, with the all-important counting set for June 22. Addressing the media after inaugurating the Jawahar Balbhavan in Mumbai, Fadnavis sought to project a calm exterior. He emphasised that detailed discussions are still ongoing to evaluate various aspects of the electoral battle. He expressed confidence that the alliance would soon reach an amicable solution. However, the specific geographies he mentioned reveal the exact fault lines. Negotiations with the Shiv Sena are heavily concentrated on Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Nashik. Meanwhile, talks with the Nationalist Congress Party are focused squarely on Pune. Alliance Arithmatic The arithmetic of the alliance is proving incredibly difficult to balance. The Shiv Sena had firmly demanded seven seats even as the BJP was offering only 3. They justify this claim by pointing to their strong support bases in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Sambhajinagar, Ratnagiri, Nashik, and Yavatmal. The Bharatiya Janata Party has a vastly different calculation. The BJP plans to assert its dominance by contesting twelve seats. This aggressive stance would leave only three seats for the Sena and a mere two seats for the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP. With the nomination process already underway, the clock is ticking loudly for the Mahayuti leadership. This intense internal friction prompted a sudden political maneuver by Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde. He flew to New Delhi over the weekend amid the escalating deadlock. Sena sources indicated that Shinde sought the intervention of the BJP’s central leadership. A Sena minister, however, quickly tried to downplay the optics of the trip. He insisted that Shinde travelled for an unscheduled programme before heading to Bengaluru for a planned event. Despite these official denials, the timing strongly suggests a high-stakes crisis intervention. Bitter Conflict The most bitter conflict within the alliance centers on the Thane local authorities constituency. Both the BJP and the Shinde-led Sena are fiercely staking their claims. A BJP legislator recently argued that political tickets should be distributed based strictly on numerical strength. He pointed out that the BJP commands 444 corporators in the region. In stark contrast, the Shinde-led Sena and the allied Jijau organisation possess a combined total of only 346 corporators. However, political reality in Maharashtra is rarely dictated by numbers alone. The Shinde faction views Thane as its emotional and traditional stronghold. Surrendering this territory to their alliance partner is considered politically unthinkable. This local dispute is already threatening to severely damage the broader coalition. A Sena Member of Parliament recently issued a stark warning regarding the upcoming Thane Zilla Parishad elections. He boldly asserted that Sena workers are fully prepared to fight alone and hoist their saffron flag, regardless of the alliance’s survival. The battle lines are extending further across the state map. The Sena is demanding the Jalgaon seat, which the BJP is equally determined to contest. Furthermore, reports suggest the Sena is preparing to unilaterally field a candidate in Raigad. This would further complicate the already delicate negotiations. Despite these mounting tensions, BJP minister Girish Mahajan has publicly maintained that the deadlock will be resolved shortly. A final decision now rests on an impending high-level meeting between Fadnavis, Shinde, and Sunetra Pawar. MVA Crisis Meanwhile, the political turbulence is not restricted to the Mahayuti alliance. The opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi is dealing with its own severe crisis in the Vidarbha region. The Chandrapur-Gadchiroli council seat has triggered frantic political poaching. As many as sixty corporators and Zilla Parishad members from the Congress party reportedly went missing recently. Congress leaders have directly accused BJP legislator Banti Bhangadiya of orchestrating this disappearance. They allege he has shifted the corporators to an undisclosed location to manipulate the voting outcome. The Congress has responded with an aggressive counter-narrative. Senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar made a startling claim that over one hundred BJP corporators are secretly in contact with him. While Wadettiwar strategically hid their exact whereabouts, his statement highlighted a critical vulnerability. He suggested that the BJP is also suffering from severe internal factionalism. Wadettiwar warned that these hidden rifts will ultimately cost the ruling party dearly in the forthcoming elections.

Inside Adani's Counter to Hindenburg

  • PTI
  • Apr 22, 2025
  • 2 min read

By Ammar Zaidi


New Delhi: Hindenburg Research, the forensic financial firm that challenged the Adani Group, took its name from the infamous airship that burst into flames upon arriving in New Jersey in 1937. And the counter to its damning report against the conglomerate was dubbed 'Operation Zeppelin,' named after the German dirigible airships used for reconnaissance and bombing during the First World War.


In January 2023, Hindenburg published a scathing report describing the Adani Group, one of India's largest conglomerates, led by one of its richest men, as "the largest con in corporate history".


The fallout was swift: stock prices plummeted, wiping out over USD 150 billion in market value at the lowest point, and the group's biggest public offering was abruptly scrapped. For a moment, it seemed like Gautam Adani's empire was on the brink.


But that impression didn't last long. The group staged a swift comeback, deploying a mix of public relations, legal maneuvers, and strategic tactics to counter the fallout and restore investor confidence.


The comeback was bolstered by a covert operation, believed to have involved assistance from an Israeli intelligence agency, according to people briefed on the issue.


The Hindenburg report, which accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud, dropped just a week before Gautam Adani was in Israel to finalise a USD 1.2-billion deal to acquire the Haifa seaport.


Privatisation of Haifa

The privatisation of Haifa Port was Israel's largest and most ambitious infrastructure and financial undertaking of the 2020s. Initially, 18 international bidders expressed interest, but only five were cleared to submit final proposals.


The winning bid -- after passing Israel's stringent security vetting -- came from a joint venture between Gadot Masofim for Chemicals Ltd and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, with the Indian firm holding the majority stake.


The bids, evaluations, and clearances had taken 18 long months -- and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was present at the signing on January 31, 2023.


As the Hindenburg report dominated global headlines, a private conversation unfolded in a modest room at the Haifa port.


According to sources, a top Israeli leader questioned Adani about the allegations, to which the Indian billionaire firmly responded that they were "absolute lies". Eshel Armoni -- the outgoing chairman of the port and a former high-ranking Mossad official -- was believed to have been present during the exchange.


Connecting dots

The New York offices of Hindenburg Research and its founder, Nathan 'Nate' Anderson, a certified Chartered Financial Analyst, were watched, they said.


Former intelligence insiders soon started connecting the dots as they stumbled upon a complex web of activist lawyers, journalists, hedge funds, and political figures -- some allegedly connected to Chinese interests, others to Washington power brokers.


Sources said the spies even infiltrated a premise in the suburban neighbourhood of Oakbrook Terrace, a small town in Illinois outside Chicago, which led to uncovering of encrypted communications between privately held alternative asset management firms and activists based in India, the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia.


Sources said Adani was briefed about the covert operation during his private visit to Switzerland in January 2024.


Adani did not react with noise -- he responded with strategy.



 
 
 

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