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Tag: Arvind Sawant

  • Arvind Sawant made Shiv Sena’s chief spokesperson along with Sanjay Raut

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena has appointed its Lok Sabha member Arvind Sawant as the party’s chief spokesperson, in an apparent bid to keep in check its other chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut.

    Sawant was earlier a spokesperson of the party.

    He was the Shiv Sena’s lone minister in the Narendra Modi-led central cabinet before he quit in 2019, after his party snapped ties with the BJP and joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form government in Maharashtra.

    The Sena published a new list of its spokespersons in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ on Wednesday.

    Raut, the Rajya Sabha member and the executive editor of ‘Saamana’, was made the party’s chief spokesperson in September last year.

    The move to appoint Sawant also as the Sena’s chief spokesperson comes against the backdrop of Raut recently calling Maharashtra NCP leader Anil Deshmukh an “accidental home minister”.

    The Rajya Sabha member also faced criticism from the ally Congress in the state after he suggested that NCP chief Sharad Pawar should take over as UPA chairperson.

    The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is currently headed by senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

    Maharashtra Revenue Minister and senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat on Tuesday said Raut should be careful before making any comments.

    State Congress chief Nana Patole had also asked if Raut was the spokesperson of Pawar.

    Meanwhile, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has dropped state minister Gulabrao Patil and Lok Sabha member Dhairyasheel Mane as party spokespersons.

    Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar, Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab, Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi, legislators Sunil Prabhu,Pratap Sarnaik, Bhaskar Jadhav, Ambadas Danve and Manisha Kayande, Sena’s deputy leader Sachin Air, former mayor Shubha Raul, corporator Sheetal Mhatre, Kishore Kanhere, Sanjana Ghadi and Anand Dube will continue as the Sena’s spokespersons, the party said.

  • Sachin Waze case: MP Navneet Rana accuses Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant of threatening her

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Amravati MP Navneet Rana on Monday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accusing Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant of threatening her after she raised the Sachin Waze issue in the House.

    She also sought police action against the south Mumbai MP.

    After she raised the issue, Sawant threatened her in the Lok Sabha’s lobby, saying “I will see how you roam in Maharashtra,” Rana alleged.

    The former Union minister also threatened that she will be put in jail, she claimed.

    Rana, an independent MP, also said that she had in the past received death and acid attack threats on the Shiv Sena’s letterhead and also over phone.

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    “The way Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant has threatened me, it is not only my insult, but the insult of all the women of the country. Hence, I demand strict action against Sawant,” she added.

    Rana raised the Waze issue in the Lok Sabha as the BJP demanded resignation of the Maharashtra government headed by Uddhav Thackeray in the wake of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s claim that the state’s Home Minister Anil Deshmukh set a Rs 100-crore collection target for the police every month.

    Singh had also claimed that Deshmukh asked Waze to help with collection of money.

    Rana claimed that Thackeray had spoken to then Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking reinstatement of Waze who was under suspension following the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case.

    “The then chief minister flatly refused. But when the current chief minister (Thackeray) took charge, the first decision he took was to reinstate Waze. Because of the chief minister such things are happening in Maharashtra,” she said.

    The NIA is probing Waze’s alleged role in placing an explosives-laden SUV outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence on February 25.