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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

MVA protests for third day:

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies continued their agitation for the third day in different parts of Maharashtra with an aggressive state Congress hitting the streets today to protest the detention of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra and other Congress leaders yesterday, here on Wednesday. State and city Youth Congress again carried out vociferous protests near Mantralaya raising slogans, carrying banners and placards slamming the...

MVA protests for third day:

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies continued their agitation for the third day in different parts of Maharashtra with an aggressive state Congress hitting the streets today to protest the detention of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra and other Congress leaders yesterday, here on Wednesday. State and city Youth Congress again carried out vociferous protests near Mantralaya raising slogans, carrying banners and placards slamming the state and central Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and when some attempted to enter inside, they were prevented by a strong posse of Mumbai Police deployed there since Monday. As tensions appeared to escalate, the police clamped down by detaining top state and city Youth Congress leaders including President Harshwardhan Sapkal, Vijay Wadettiwar, Bhai Jagtap, Hussain Dalwai, and many others. Thousands of students carried out a fresh demonstration at Dadar west Shivaji Park to vent their ire at the police action on Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)’s agitation in New Delhi on Monday. Several MVA leaders and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray visited or expressed solidarity with the protesting youth, comprising many women. Opposition’s Voice The Congress leaders alleged that Rahul Gandhi was targeted by the BJP-led government to muzzle democratic dissent, suppress the Opposition voices inside and outside Parliament and trampling upon the peoples' Constitutional Rights to protest peacefully. Defying pouring rains in the city on Wednesday, Congress workers along with activists of MVA allies, staged a noisy demonstration in Chembur and another group attempted to storm the BJP office in south Mumbai, condemning the assault on students in New Delhi and the detention of the Gandhi siblings. Senior Congress leader Hussain Dalwai flayed the government for “misusing the police” to gag democratic rights and the protests were intended to defend the Constitution and democracy against the BJP’s policy of intolerance of dissent in any form. “This is gross injustice. We are not allowed to protest against the government failures as they are misusing the police. The PM is scared of taking the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as he could be the next. We want to highlight to the BJP to govern the country as per the Constitution,” Dalwai declared, interacting with the media at Nariman Point. As the BJP also threatened to launch counter-protests, the police cordoned off and deployed a precautionary security ring around Tilak Bhavan, the state Congress headquarters, as leaders from both sides exchanged political darts and looked aggressive enough for a confrontation. MVA ‘bandh’, ‘Tricolour’ march today The state is set for another two days of political turmoil as the MVA has announced a Maharashtra shutdown (‘bandh’) on Thursday followed by a non-partisan ‘Tricolour Peace March’ on Friday. MVA allies, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, besides other leaders of the alliance, informed of the state and city level actions today. Ambedkar appealed to the masses and also the BJP youth to participate wholeheartedly in the bandh tomorrow and claimed that students’ bodies, parent-teachers associations, colleges, universities, other institutes of higher education, private coaching institutions, and other governmental departments could support the shutdown, as it has now become a national issue. Aaditya sought the peoples’ participation in the ‘Tricolour Peace March’ on the theme of “One Nation, One Emotion” planned on July 24 afternoon to Shivaji Park, in support of environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, the Cockroach Janta Party, plus the youth and students protesting in New Delhi. Terming it as a national citizens’ movement rather than a political party, he called upon the people not to carry any party flags but unite under the National Tricolour to assert democratic rights and express resentment against the government’s high-handed policies. Meanwhile, Mumbai Police have already imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 across the city from July 23-to- August 6, apprehending the possibility of law-and-order disturbances.

Papa’s Pari in Fray

Papa’s Pari in Fray

Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan’s daughter Shreejaya is all set to contest the upcoming Assembly election from Bhokar constituency of Nanded district on a BJP ticket. Now it needs to be seen whether she takes ahead the legacy of her grandfather.


Born in 1992, Shreejaya is a lawyer by profession. She has been helping her father in managing his political office for quite some time now. She came to limelight when she walked a substantially good distance with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra.


She was behind the show of strength that her father displayed during the Yatra a couple of years back before joining the BJP. It was a social media post by her father that is considered to have brought her forth as his probable political successor back then. With announcement of her candidature today the speculations have gained momentum.


Born and brought up in the family of Union ministers and Chief Ministers, Shreejaya never had a groups of friends like other kids of her age would have. She misses the thing even today. However, she learnt to fill the gap by making friends with technology and animals at a very young age. Though she is a lawyer by education she has a good sense of technology and several ideas about how it can be engaged for the betterment of the people and to communicate with the people.


It was this friendship of her with the technology that led her to launch ‘Ashok Chavan Seva Setu’, a telephone-based platform to resolve issues concerning people for which they often run to the politician. She conceived the idea and launched the service while her father was the guardian minister of the Nanded district. Her tech-savvy-ness was also instrumental in starting the Namaste Nanded digital platform which has over 1,25,000 followers on Instagram from her home district.


Though her schooling and college education happened primarily in Mumbai, she never lost her touch with Nanded. In fact, she has systematically nurtured the connect over past few years by taking interest in management of the Kusum Mahotsav and the Sangeet Shankar Darbar – the two festivals started by her family in memory her of her grandparents. While the musical program in memory of late Shankarrao Chavan attracts the ace talent in the field of music every year, the festival in memory of Shreejaya’s grandmother Kusumtai is dedicated to women’s empowerment and attracts a host of women’s self-help groups from the region.


Shreejaya has seen sharp twists and turns of the politics at a very early stage in her life and it is said that it was she who encouraged her father to stand up again and fight after his defeat in 2019 election.

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