Mumbai Diary

Express News Service

CM visits Mantralaya but works from homeChief Minister Uddhav Thackeray recently visited Mantralaya, the administrative headquarters of Maharashtra government, and promised that he would be a regular visitor soon. Thackeray continues to operate from his official residence, Varsha. Alliance partner NCP’s chief Sharad Pawar backed Thackeray that it is a routine practice by chief ministers to function from their official residence. Pawar said there are separate secretaries available to handle the administrative issues from both Mantralaya as well as the CM’s official residence. While Thackeray is attending most of the official meetings virtually, his deputy Ajit Pawar is often present at Mantralaya to chair meetings.  

Mega rallies to counter ‘law and order’ narrative Legally tenable or not, Centre imposing President’s Rule on Maharashtra is at the centre chats in state’s political circles. This buzz has got louder after the recent drama involving Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray has been delivering speeches directing at the minority community. Many a political pundit sees these developments as a deliberate attempt to create law and order issue in the state, which could be used as an excuse to impose the President’s Rule. To counter any such move, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi partners, barring Congress, have started mega public outreach programmes. 

Ranas challenging Matoshree charges up SenaMatoshree — the private residence of Uddhav Thackeray — has turned into a Shraddha Sthan, a respectable place to every Sena worker. This came to full display when the Rana couple challenged Thackeray by announcing to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshreee.  The Sena cadre, which had been in a slumber, got charged up by the challenge, leading to them assembling outside the house of Ranas. Earlier, Narayan Rane and Chagan Bhujbal had tried to ‘challenge’ Matoshree. Rane had claimed he would defeat the Sena candidate in the seat where Matoshree is located, but in the end he lost the poll due to Sena’s door-to-door campaign. Bhujpal, too, shared a similar fate.

Sudhir Suryawanshi Our correspondent in Maharashtra [email protected]