News Analysis India

Tag: NCP

  • Woman accuses Maharashtra social justice minister Dhananjay Munde of rape

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: A woman has accused Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde of rape and claimed the Mumbai police ignored her complaint.

    The NCP leader denied the allegations, claiming he is being blackmailed by the complainant and her sister.

    Munde said he had been in a relationship with the complainant’s sister and sired two children.

    The 37-year-old woman, an aspiring singer, said she wrote to Mumbai police commissioner on January 10, stating that Munde repeatedly raped her in 2006. She also claimed that she approached Oshiwara police here earlier but her complaint was not accepted.

    ALSO READ | Maharashtra social justice minister Dhananjay Munde refutes rape allegation, terms it blackmail

    Munde (45) said the woman’s claims were part of a conspiracy to blackmail him. He, however, acknowledged that he was in a relationship with the complainants sister and has two children with her.

    In a statement issued on Tuesday, Munde said his wife, family and friends were aware of this relationship, adding the two kids have been accepted by his family.

    He said the woman with whom he was in a relationship had been blackmailing him since 2019 and he had filed a police complaint and also moved the Bombay High Court seeking a stay on the distribution of defamatory content against him.

  • Maharashtra social justice minister Dhananjay Munde refutes rape allegation, terms it blackmail

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Social and Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde on Tuesday refuted rape allegation levelled by a 38-year-old woman and said he is in a relationship with her since 2003.

    In a post on Facebook, the NCP leader claimed that the woman and her sister are trying to blackmail him and extort money from him. He said that he had also given a complaint to the police in November 2020.

    Munde said that he is in a relationship with the woman since 2003 and has two children with her. The minister said that their relationship is also accepted by his family.

    After Munde accepted his relationship with the woman, BJP’s women wing wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and demanded his removal from the Cabinet.

    READ HERE | Woman accuses Maharashtra social justice minister Dhananjay Munde of rape

    On January 11, the woman along with her lawyer arrived at the Oshiwara police station in Andheri to file a rape complaint against Munde. She stated in her complaint that she knows Munde since 1997.

    She alleged that Munde is raping her by giving an assurance of marrying her and also promised to help her to get work as a singer in Bollywood.

    Advocate Ramesh Tripathi, lawyer of the woman said that FIR has not been lodged in the matter so far.

    “Munde first raped her in 2008 when she was alone at her home and shot video of it. Since then had repeated the act multiple times over the years. In 2019, he denied marrying her and said if she says something then he will leak the video on social media. The police station denied of lodging an FIR in the case. We will go to court. If anything happens to her, then Munde will be responsible,” he said. 

  • SC’s stay on implementation of farm laws a positive step: NCP

    quot;Hon #39;ble Supreme Court #39;s stay on implementation of #FarmLaws is a welcome amp; positive step in the right direction to get Justice for our farmers…, quot; Nawab Malik tweeted.

  • PM Narendra Modi should take COVID-19 vaccine first to allay doubts: NCP

    Somewhere there is a need to create confidence among the people. Hence, the prime minister should begin the drive vaccinating himself first.

  • Maharashtra hospital fire: Rahul Gandhi appeals to state govt to provide assistance to affected kin

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday condoled the death of newborn babies in the Maharashtra hospital fire and appealed to the state government to provide all possible assistance to the families of the deceased and the injured.

    Ten newborns died after the fire broke out in the Special Newborn Care Unit of a hospital in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district in the early hours of Saturday, doctors said.

    The babies were aged between a month and three months, according to a doctor.

    The unfortunate incident of fire at Bhandara District General Hospital in Maharashtra is extremely tragic.My condolences to the families of the children who lost their lives.I appeal to Maha Govt to provide every possible assistance to the families of the injured & deceased.
    — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 9, 2021

    District civil surgeon Pramod Khandate said there were 17 babies in the unit of whom seven could be rescued.

    “The unfortunate incident of fire at Bhandara District General Hospital in Maharashtra is extremely tragic. My condolences to the families of the children who lost their lives,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

    “I appeal to Maha Govt to provide every possible assistance to the families of the injured & deceased,” he said.

    The Maharashtra government is led by the Shiv Sena with the NCP and the Congress part of the ruling dispensation.

  • Defections depleting Maharashtra BJP ranks

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: Thrown out of power in Maharashtra by the unprecedented alliance of traditional rivals Shiv Sena and the Congress-NCP combine, the BJP has been facing an uphill task of keeping its flock together in the state. For the saffron party’s state leadership, every alternate day has been dawning with some or the other leader joining either the NCP or the Sena.

    The party is also feeling the vacuum left behind by mass leaders like Gopinath Munde and Pramod Mahajan. Veteran politician Eknath Khadse, who recently crossed over to the NCP, said the BJP was no more a party of honest workers. “I spent almost 40 years in the BJP and helped it expand in every nook and corner of the state. There were days when no one wanted to join the BJP and people used to criticise us as a ‘Brahmin-Baniya party’. I worked hard along with my leaders Munde and Mahajan to change the party’s image. But, I was humiliated and saw no future in the party,” Khadse said.

    “The present leadership cannot keep the flock together for a long time. Sooner or later, people will leave the party.” State minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik said, “Every day we get calls from BJP leaders and workers showing their willingness to join the NCP. Our Maha Vikas Aghadi is more stable and secured now.” A senior BJP leader admitted that the MVA government is unlikely to fall anytime soon. “Our leadership tried but could not succeed.

    Now, the NCP and the Sena will fight the next assembly elections together. Therefore, everyone who had joined the BJP for power is suddenly seeing a dim future,” said the leader. Many BJP leaders have become restless after they started receiving notices for old cases, he added. The state police had filed an FIR against BJP MLA and former minister Girish Mahajan in connection with an extortion case. He is known to be close to former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

    MLC Prasad Lad received a notice from state’s Economic Offense Wing for alleged fraud in BMC in 2014. The Opposition leader in the legislative council Pravin Darekar is facing inquiry in a bank fraud case. Another BJP leader said the party’s future in the state is now dependent on PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

    Cong, Sena rift over Aurangabad widensMumbai: The rift in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra over renaming Aurangabad city has widened after the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) mentioned the city as Sambhaji Nagar in a tweet even as the Congress strongly opposed the move. Shiv Sena, which heads the three-party alliance in the state, has been at loggerheads with Congress, which says that renaming does not figure in the common minimum programme of the alliance. Replying to the tweet, State Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat reiterated his party’s opposition.

  • Maharashtra: Congress gets nervous of NCP’s ‘expansion plans’, hunts for new, aggressive state chief

    By Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The NCP’s “expansion plan” in Maharashtra has made the Congress nervous. The Grand Old Party has now decided to replace the incumbent Maharashtra Congress president with someone who is more aggressive and takes on Opposition and alliance partners as well.

    According to the highly-placed sources in Congress, party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have expressed their displeasure over the mild stand and limited growth of the party in Maharashtra despite being in power.

    “NCP and the Congress share similar vote banks. The NCP is eating our traditional vote bank of Muslims and Dalits by reaching out to them and promoting their community leaders. On the contrary, the Congress has no plan to counter NCP’s growth. If this trend continues, the future of the Congress will be very bleak in Maharashtra, and in the next elections it will be thrown out of power as well,” said a senior Congress leader requesting anonymity.

    “Sonia Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders discussed this issue with state president Balasaheb Thorat and expressed disappointment over lack of growth in Maharashtra. They told Thorat that he can no longer be any help to the party. Following the meeting, Thorat offered to step down paving the way for someone young and dynamic,” said another top source in the party.

    Sonia Gandhi asked Maharashtra Congress observer HK Patil to go to Mumbai and consult the Maharashtra Congress leaders over the restructuring. Patil was in Mumbai to consult with the Congress ministers and MLAs. 

    “Patil got mixed reactions from the party leaders in Maharashtra on the decision of replacing Thorat. The people close to Thorat defended him while others were ready to accept the decision of the high command. Patil has been told to prepare the report and submit to Congress president for the final decision over replacing the incumbent Maharashtra Congress president,” added the source.

    While talking to The New Indian Express earlier, HK Patil confirmed that the party had decided to restructure the Congress in Maharashtra. Many names such as Speaker Nana Patole, minister Amit Deshmukh and Nitin Raut are making rounds for the next Maharashtra Congress president.

  • Nepal PM Oli ‘tired Of Making Deals With Prachanda’; Chinese Ploy To Restore Unity Fails

    Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Wednesday said that he is “tired of making deals” with the rival faction leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and accused him of breaching various agreements reached between them on several occasions to keep the ruling Nepal Communist Party’s unity intact.

    According to My Republica newspaper, Oli’s remarks came hours after a four-member Chinese delegation led by Vice Minister of the International Department of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Guo Yezhou returned home without much success in its mission to patch up differences between Nepal’s feuding leaders.

    Addressing party leaders and cadres of his faction from Sudurpaschim Province in Kathmandu, Oli came down heavily against leaders of the rival faction for their non-cooperation in running the party and government for the past two years since he came to power.

    Oli, who is also the chairperson of a faction of the NCP, accused Prachanda of breaching various agreements reached between them on multiple occasions to keep the party unity intact, it said. “In fact, Prachandaji was negotiating with the Nepali Congress to form the government and at the same time he was bargaining with me although we (two communist parties) won elections after forging an electoral alliance,” Oli said.  

    “I am tired of making deals with Dahal (Prachanda),” Oli said, adding that he had reached a number of agreements with the former Prime Minister for keeping the party unity intact.

    Nepal’s Supreme Court on Friday issued a show-cause notice to the Oli-led government, asking it to submit a written clarification over its decision to abruptly dissolve Parliament. The five-member Constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana asked the government to submit an original copy of the recommendations made by it to dissolve the House and the decision made by the President to authenticate the government’s recommendations within 10 days.

  • China’s Meddling In Nepal Grows; Xi & CCP Send Top Minister To Kathmandu To Sort NCP Chaos

    In a deeply suspicious move amid political chaos in Nepal, China is sending a vice-minister of the Chinese Communist Party to “assess the ground situation”. The local media reports, two Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders confirmed that Guo Yexhou, vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, is arriving in Kathmandu on Sunday for a four-day visit. According to sources, during the visit, Gui will meet the senior leaders of both the factions of the warring NCP. 

    Sources in both the factions of the NCP confirmed that Guo, along with his four-member team, will land in Kathmandu on Sunday morning. Bishnu Rijal, Deputy Head of Department of Foreign Affairs of the NCP (Dahal-Nepal faction), while confirming that the Chinese side communicated about Guo’s visit to Kathmandu, denied details ‘at this point of time’. This comes after Nepal president Bidya Devi Bhandari had dissolved the Lower House on Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s recommendation.