News Analysis India

Tag: Uddhav Thackeray

  • In 56 years, Shiv Sena faces fourth rebellion, first under Uddhav’s watch

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Despite being a party of committed cadres with unflinching loyalty to leadership of the day, the Shiv Sena has been vulnerable to rebellions in its ranks and it has seen revolts by prominent figures on four occasions, three of them under the watch of its charismatic founder Bal Thackeray, with Eknath Shinde becoming the latest leader to join the list.

    The rebellion by Shinde, a Cabinet minister who has walked away with a bunch of Shiv Sena MLAs, is most significant in the outfit’s 56-year-old history as it threatens to bring down the party-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, while the other revolts took place when it was not in power in the state.

    The present revolt, which started taking shape post-Monday midnight after Legislative Council poll results, throws a big challenge before Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray as the three previous revolts took place when his father Bal Thackeray was still around.

    The Sena witnessed the first major jolt in 1991 when Chhagan Bhujbal, the OBC face of the party who was also credited with expanding the organization’s base in rural parts of Maharashtra, decided to leave the party.

    Bhujbal had cited “non-appreciation” from the party leadership as the reason for leaving the party. Despite Bhujbal having helped the Sena to win a sizeable number of seats in parts of Maharashtra, Bal Thackeray had appointed Manohar Joshi as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

    In the subsequent winter session in Nagpur, Bhujbal along with 18 Sena MLAs left the party and announced their support to the Congress which was then ruling the state.

    But, 12 rebel MLAs returned to the Sena fold the same day. Bhujbal and other rebel MLAs were recognized by the then-Assembly speaker as a separate group and they did not face any action.

    “It was an audacious move because Shiv Sena workers were well known for their aggressive approach (towards dissidence). They even attacked the official residence of Chhagan Bhujbal in Mumbai, which is generally guarded by the state police force,” a senior political journalist told PTI.

    Bhujbal, however, lost the 1995 Assembly election from Mumbai to the then-Shiv Sena leader Bala Nandgaonkar, and later shifted base to Nashik district. The veteran politician joined the NCP when Sharad Pawar formed the party after leaving the Congress in 1999.

    Bhujbal (74) is currently a minister and cabinet colleague of Shinde in the Shiv Sena-led MVA government. In 2005, the Shiv Sena faced another challenge when former chief minister Narayan Rane left the party and joined the Congress. Rane, who subsequently left the Congress, is currently a BJP Rajya Sabha member and also a Union minister.

    The next shock to the Sena came in 2006 when Uddhav Thackeray’s cousin Raj Thackeray decided to leave the party and form his own political outfit – the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

    Raj Thackeray had then said his fight was not with the Sena leadership, but with others surrounding the party leadership and not letting others in.

    In the 2009 election to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the MNS won 13 seats. Its tally in Mumbai was one more than the Shiv Sena.

    The Shiv Sena is currently facing another rebellion by a section of its MLAs led by senior state minister Eknath Shinde, a four-time MLA from Thane district and a popular figure in the organization.

    Political journalist Prakash Akolkar, who has written a book on the party, said, “The Sena leadership is taking some of its leaders for granted. Such an attitude has always backfired, but party is not ready to change its stance.”

    “Now, times have changed and most of the MLAs come to the party with a lot of expectations, he said. If those expectations are not addressed properly, such a revolt is bound to happen,” he said.

    The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs, the NCP 53 and the Congress 44 MLAs. All three constitute the MVA. The opposition BJP has 106 seats in the Assembly. To escape disqualification under the anti-defection law, Shinde needs the support of 37 MLAs. The rebel leader has claimed 46 Sena MLAs are with him.

  • Maharashtra political crisis: Sanjay Raut hints at dissolution of Assembly

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday indicated that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray could recommend to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to dissolve the state Assembly, as the crisis for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government deepened.

    “The political developments in Maharashtra are headed towards dissolution of the state Assembly,” Raut said. Shiv Sena’s dissident leader Eknath Shinde on Wednesday asserted that 40 MLAs from Maharashtra have accompanied him to Guwahati in Assam.

    Follow live coverage here: Maharashtra turmoil

    The Shiv Sena legislators have rebelled against the party, plunging the tripartite MVA government, comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress, into a crisis.

    Earlier, the MLAs were taken to Surat in Gujarat from Mumbai on Tuesday, and the decision to shift them to Guwahati was taken on security grounds, according to another BJP source.

  • Congress slams Assam CM Himanta for conspiring to break Uddhav government

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The Congress slammed Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for conspiring to break the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra at a time when the people of Assam are suffering in devastating floods.

    Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah alleged some 40 MLAs of Maharashtra were held to ransom in Guwahati. He criticised Sarma for his indulgence in the “shameful” act.

    “CM Assam @himantabiswa should concentrate on his own job and provide adequate relief and rehabilitation and help the flood-affected people of Assam. He can do his politicking in happier times not now when people are crying for @mygovassam help,” Borah tweeted.

    CM Assam @himantabiswa should concentrate on his own job and provide adequate relief and rehabilitation and help the flood affected people of Assam. He can do his politicking in happier times not now when people are crying for @mygovassam help.
    — Bhupen kumar Borah (@BhupenKBorah) June 22, 2022
    Eknath Shinde, who is leading the group of Shiv Sena rebels, claimed he has 40 MLAs with him.

    Earlier on Wednesday morning, the Sena MLAs arrived at the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport in Guwahati in a chartered flight from Surat in Gujarat. Sources said the flight had 89 people on board, including cabin crew.

    The MLAs were received by Assam BJP MP Pallab Lochan Das and party MLA Sushanta Borgohain. Later, they were taken to Radisson Blu, a five-star hotel in the city, in three buses under police protection. An IPS officer led the police team.

    Shinde briefly spoke to journalists outside the airport.

    “There are 40 MLAs here. I don’t want to criticise anyone. We want to carry forward Balasaheb’s Hindutva,” he said.

    It was learnt Shinde had a meeting with the fellow MLAs at the hotel. Borgohain said he had no knowledge about it. He expressed ignorance also on reports that the Assam CM visited the hotel prior to the arrival of the MLAs.

    Sarma is widely known for his political acumen. He is one politician who can make or break a government. He successfully spearheaded many such missions in the Northeast.

    In the 2017 Manipur elections, the BJP had won 21 seats as against the Congress’ 28 in the 60-member House but Sarma managed to cobble up the numbers for the party to eventually help it form a coalition government.

    A few years ago, most MLAs of the ruling People’s Party of Arunachal had defected to the BJP and form a BJP government. Sarma had played a key role in it.

  • Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray faces rebellion from within

    Express News Service

    MUMBAI:  Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s government faced its biggest existential crisis on Tuesday with Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde revolting along with 30-35 party MLAs and Independents and asking the former to form an new government with BJP in the state. To escape disqualification under the anti-defection law, Shinde needs the support of 37 party MLAs. 

    Shinde first shepherded his flock to Surat in Gujarat from where the buzz was they would be airlifted to Assam. Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi. Shinde wants the Sena to go back to its former ally and be part of a new government led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The erosion put a question mark over Uddhav’s leadership, too, more so because Shinde was known to be close to him. 

    ALSO READ | Major humiliating defeat of Congress candidate in MLC elections

    As things stand, Uddhav loyalists have been reduced to a minority within his party. For, at a meeting he called in Mumbai, only 18 are learnt to have turned up, though Sena’s Sanjay Raut put the figure at 30.Earlier in the day, Shinde and his supporters checked into the Le Meridian hotel in Surat. BJP is the single largest party with 105 MLAs and support of six Independents. It needs 40 more to reach the half-way mark to return to power (see box). In the Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP got support from 123 and in the subsequent MLC polls, its votes ballooned to 134, apparently through cross-voting. 

    Sources said after Sena’s poor performance in the MLC polls, Uddhav was upset with Shinde for not delivering despite being giving weighty portfolios of urban development and PWD, and a free hand in the government and the party. Shinde has since been stripped of his position as the Sena’s group leader in the Assembly.

    ALSO READ | MLC elections: Thackeray govt in danger zone, BJP gets 134 votes 

    BJP sources said Shinde was in touch with its leadership since the last six months. “He supported us in the Rajya Sabha elections and the legislative council polls…We provided logistical support to Shinde upon his revolt. The rooms at Le Meridian were booked by us,” the leader said seeking anonymity.

    Uddhav tried to reach out to Shinde by sending sent his personal assistant Milind Narvekar to Surat. During the 30-minute meeting Narvekar had with Shinde, the latter spoke to Uddhav and his spouse Rashmi Thackeray over the phone but he did not promise to return to Sena. 

    Most of the MLAs with Shinde are from rural areas. “They were never entertained by Uddhav and his coterie. Shinde tapped this space to his advantage. He was also apprehensive about the rise of Aditya Thackeray in the party,” said a person close to Shinde. 

  • Milind Narvekar: Meet Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray’s peacemaker amid political crisis

    Express News Service

    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Milind Narvekar, who is also personal assistant of CM Uddhav Thackeray, tried to play the peace marker role between estranged Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

    After the revolt of estranged Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday, Narvekar was asked by the chief minister to rush to Surat where Shinde and other disgruntled party MLAs were kept in a luxury hotel and bring him back to Mumbai.

    CLICK HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES ON MAHARASHTRA POLITICAL TURMOIL

    Narvekar and and party MLC Ravindra Phatak left for Surat where they met Shinde at Hotel LeMeridien. From there, Shinde spoke with Uddhav and even with hsi wife Rashmi Thackeray over the phone.  Sources said the it was more than ten minute telephonic conversation between Shinde and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav.

    “Shinde requested Uddhav to break the alliance with Congress and NCP and form the government with BJP in Maharashtra. Shinde even said that he does not want any ministry but a BJP-allied government because both the parties are natural ideological allies. Shiv Sena is losing its support base with Congress and NCP in power and this is not good for the future of the party” said a source requesting anonymity.

    “Thackeray on the other hand, asked Shinde to come back and if needed, he is ready to sacrifice his chief minister post and replace himself with Shinde. However, nothing was finalised in the meeting apart from discussion. It was a failed meeting. All efforts were in vain because Shinde refused to agree with continuing an alliance with Congress and NCP,” said a source requesting anonymity.

    ALSO READ| Exploring possibility of government formation in Maharashtra: Former BJP minister

    Interestingly, Narvekar was always blamed whenever there was revolt in Shiv Sena against its leadership. Union minister Narayan Rane solely blamed Narvekar for not picking his phone and giving to Uddhav Thackeray. He accused Narvekar for creating a communication gap between party leaders, workers, MLAs and Uddhav Thackeray during  his exit time. Now, the same Narvekar has playing the significant role as peacemaker between estranged leader Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray.

    Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has removed Eknath Shinde from legislative party leader post and appointed Ajay Chaudhary in his place.  

  • Shinde pressured to rebel against Sena, says Sanjay Raut; alleges police attack on two MLAs in Surat

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: In a veiled attack on BJP, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday claimed Sanjay Raut was pressured to go against the Uddhav Thackeray-led party and also alleged that at least two MLAs accompanying the minister in Surat were beaten up by the police and goons under ‘Operation Kamal’ (lotus).

    Speaking on the political turmoil in view of Shinde going incommunicado and camping in Surat with some MLAs of Sena, Raut hinted at pressure from Central agencies and said he was aware of the “compulsions” of Shinde that might have prompted him to rebel against the party.

    Raut also claimed that some of the MLAs were misled and “kidnapped” to Gujarat.

    “Two of the MLAs (with Shinde), including Nitin Deshmukh, were beaten up last night. Deshmukh tried to run away but he was beaten up by the police and goondas under ‘Operation Kamal’ and suffered a heart attack. Some of the MLAs have told us that they were misled and taken to Gujarat,” he claimed.

    Raut alleged that MLAs of Sena had received at least four to five calls from their colleagues who told them over the phone that they were misled and requested their rescue.

    “At least four to five calls have been received by some MLAs of Sena. The caller MLAs said that they were being misled and kidnapped. They said that they were called for dinner in Thane (on Monday) and then taken away. Their family members have lodged police complaints about their husbands and fathers going missing,” Raut said.

    READ HERE: Maharashtra turmoil LIVE | MVA leaders huddle at CM Uddhav’s residence

    Raut said he too had received notices from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) but never buckled under pressure. “But I will never quit Shiv Sena which is like my mother. I am aware of Shinde’s compulsions,” he added.

    He claimed that 14 to 15 MLAs of the Sena are accompanying Shinde, while at least 30 MLAs attended the meeting with CM Thackeray in Mumbai on Tuesday. The Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs in the House.

    Raut also justified the removal of Shinde as the group leader of the Sena in the Legislative Assembly, saying disciplinary action was required. Earlier in the day, Raut had said that communication has been established with Shinde “who is not in Mumbai”.

    ALSO READ | Gujarat BJP’s CR Patil in touch with Eknath Shinde for long time: Sources

  • Surat hotel housing Eknath Shinde, rebel Shiv Sena MLAs turns into fortress

    By PTI

    SURAT: As Maharashtra’s ruling coalition battles for survival in Mumbai, some 280km away in Surat in BJP-ruled Gujarat, luxury hotel Le Meridien has become the focus of all attention as it is currently hosting dissident Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde and some rebel party MLAs, and the property has been turned into a virtual fortress with nearly 400 policemen guarding it since early Tuesday morning.

    While guests who had arrived earlier are leaving one by one, sources revealed that the hotel, situated on Dumas Road of the diamond city, has stopped accepting new bookings for an indefinite period.

    Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Jalgaon in North Maharashtra Sanjay Kute arrived at the hotel in his car in the afternoon and he was subsequently allowed to go inside to meet the Shiv Sena leaders camping there.

    LIVE | Shiv Sena sacks Eknath Shinde as party whip; Minister invokes Bal Thackeray

    After the arrival of Shinde, a key Sena leader, and other Sena MLAs from Maharashtra on Monday night, 300 to 400 policemen took positions inside and outside the hotel premises and put barricades on both entry and exit points to prevent any “unauthorised” person from entering the property from the main road.

    Apart from the outer campus of the hotel, policemen are also deployed inside the hotel, especially on the floor where these ‘rebel leaders’ are staying. Since morning, DCP-level officers were seen visiting the premises at regular intervals and giving necessary instructions to on-duty police personnel.

    While no outsider or visitor is permitted to enter the hotel premises, staffers are allowed inside only after checking their IDs and taking permission from authorities concerned.

    A large group of journalists and camera persons are camping outside the hotel to gather news on the dramatic political developments connected to Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ruling coalition is battling its worst crisis since coming to power in November 2019.

    Scene outside hotel Le Meridian in Surat where disgruntled Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde & his loyalists Sena MLAs are camped. One of the Sena MLA suffered heart issue & he has been shifted to nearby hospital in Surat only. @NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard pic.twitter.com/JZ5Ya7GTps
    — Sudhir Suryawanshi (@ss_suryawanshi) June 21, 2022
    Maharashtra minister and some MLAs reached the hotel on late June 20 night, hours after Legislative Council polls which saw the BJP winning a fifth seat despite not having enough numbers in the Assembly, possibly due to suspected cross-voting from the ruling bloc besides support from Independent MLAs and those from smaller parties.

    After the Council poll results, Shinde went incommunicado and later it came to light he is camping in the hotel along with some party MLAs.

    The opposition BJP on Monday won all five seats it contested in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections for 10 seats, while Congress candidate and Dalit leader Chandrakant Handore lost, in another setback for the MVA, comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, after the Rajya Sabha polls earlier this month.

    Two candidates each of the Shiv Sena and NCP won, while the Congress managed to bag just one seat.

    Ten Council seats were up for grabs and 11 candidates were in the fray for the elections, which came days after the Rajya Sabha polls, which saw the BJP handing an embarrassing defeat to the Shiv Sena-led ruling coalition by winning an additional seat despite lacking in numbers.

  • Gujarat BJP’s CR Patil in touch with Eknath Shinde for long time: Sources

    Express News Service

    Gujarat’s Surat may well become the centre of a political earthquake that is likely to topple the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra.

    The disgruntled rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and 21 Sena MLAs are camped at Hotel Le Meridian in Surat. Interestingly, the rooms in this hotel were booked on June 20 evening only.

    Sources said that Gujarat BJP unit CR Patil is the key person behind the rebellion of Shinde against Uddhav Thackeray.

    “Patil has been in touch with Shinde for a long time to carry out ‘Operation Lotus’ in Maharashtra. Patil who hails from Jalgaon is in touch with some of the Sena MLAs as well. These MLAs include Chimanrao Patil from Parola, and Kishor Patil from Pachora, who belong to the Maratha community. This link helped Patil to connect with Shinde and other disgruntled MLAs of Sena. It was planned ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections and Maharashtra state legislative council elections by transferring Shiv Sena votes to BJP,” said a source who requested anonymity.

    Interestingly, after the arrival of Shinde and his supporter MLAs, Patil cancelled all his scheduled meetings. He was in Ahmedabad and then he rushed to Surat. Besides, Gujarat police also deployed heavy security to the hotel where Sena MLAs are camped.

    One of the rebels Shiv Sena MLAs said that he has been promised a cabinet post in the new government. He said in the Thackeray government, he was the senior-most but was still neglected.

    A senior Shiv Sena leader said that party leaders and MLAs who are under the scanner of Central agencies encouraged Shinde to take this step against the Shiv Sena leadership and form government with BJP.

    Sources also said that Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik and former chairman of BMC standing committee Yashwant Jadhav were in Delhi to coordinate with BJP leaders and Shinde. 

    Explaining a plausible cause behind the rebellion, a source who requested anonymity “The communication gap between rural MLAs and urban MLAs of Sena increased. The power was concentrated with urban faces that annoyed rural Sena MLAs. Besides, Uddhav Thackeray was not easily approachable and accessible. During fund allocations, NCP leader Ajit Pawar dominated decision-making which did not go well with Sena MLAs.”

  • Remarks on Prophet: Due to BJP, country faced embarrassment at international level and had to apologise, says Uddhav

    By PTI

    AURANGABAD: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said that because of the BJP, the country had to face an embarrassing situation at the international level as it was “brought to its knees and was forced to apologise” by the Arab countries over the controversial remarks made by the party spokesperson on Prophet Mohammad.

    Addressing a rally, his first outside Mumbai after his spine surgery in November last year, Thackeray also attacked the BJP saying that while inflation is on the rise and the rupee is on a downward slide, there is a concern to find under which mosque there is a Shivling.

    He also slammed the Centre over the recent targeted killings in Kashmir, and said instead of harassing the leaders of Maharashtra’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), raids should be conducted there.

    On the controversial comments made by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma against Prophet Mohammad, he said, “The Middle East and the Arab countries brought our country to its knees and forced to apologise. What led to this? India has to apologise. What has the country done? It is the BJP and its spokespersons that have committed the crime. The words spoken by the BJP spokesperson or BJP cannot be the stand of India on any issue. The words of BJP spokesperson used (for Prophet Mohammad) tarnished India’s image at the International level. It damaged the image of my country and not that of the BJP,” he said.

    “There are political differences between us (Shiv Sena and BJP), but he (Narendra Modi) is our country’s prime minister. His photo was stuck on garbage bins (in some country) and we keep seeing it. But why should the country apologise for it when the mistake is done by BJP and it’s spokesperson,” Thackeray added.

    The BJP on Sunday suspended Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi unit media head Naveen Kumar Jindal after a row over their alleged derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammad escalated with protests from some Muslim countries.

    Sharma’s comments, made in a TV debate nearly recently, and Jindal’s now-deleted tweets sparked a Twitter trend calling for a boycott of Indian products in some Arab countries. “I want to ask RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat whether he had expected this kind of behaviour of BJP seen today,” Thackeray said.

    During his speech, he targeted the BJP over various issues ranging from Hindutva to inflation and the controversial statements made by BJP spokespersons.

    “Inflation is rising, rupee is declining, but our worry is Shivling lying beneath which mosque, what is under the Taj Mahal, what is under the Gyanvapi masjid,” he said at a rally that was attended by the top leaders of the party.

    “What have we done to say that we have deserted Hindutva. Let’s debate what Shiv Sena has done for Hindutva and BJP has done for it,” he said.

    He said had his father late Sena founder Bal Thackeray not taken the responsibility and said that if the Shiv Sainiks had demolished Babri he was proud of it, or had he not backed Kashmiri Pandits and “roared” when Amarnath Yatra was under attack, then would BJP have risen to power in the name of Hindutva.

    Asserting that the Sena was not “hollow Hindutvavdi” to take lessons of Hindutva from the BJP, Thackeray recalled that during the Ayodhya movement, there was slogan ‘Whoever who thinks about the welfare of Hindus will rule the country’ and asked whether the BJP which is in power thinking about the welfare of Hindus.

    He also welcomed the statements made by RSS chief, who said that there was no need to find Shivling in every mosque. He also attacked Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana, who were arrested in April after they insisted on reciting Hanuman Chalisa outside Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’.

    “If you have the guts then go to Kashmir and recite Hanuman Chalisa. Our Hindutva is not of impotent. If you are a man, then protect the Kashmir Pandits. If you have the guts then go there,” he said.

    “It makes one angry that the Kashmiri Pandits are leaving the Valley and no one is ready to speak for them. Did any single spokesperson of BJP speak on this issue,” he asked.

    BJP never saw Hindu festivals while doing agitations or doing Bharat Bandh because they indulged in politics alone. But late Shiv Sena supremo never did this.

    Earlier when petrol prices went up even by seven paise, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee once went to Parliament in a bullock cart. We are looking for that BJP today, he said.

    Targetting senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis for his remark that while he was there when the Babri structure was pulled down in Ayodhya, nobody from the Shiv Sena was present there.

    “Sena earlier was speaking to make a special law and construct Ram mandir. But you didn’t show that courage. Judgement came from the court, so the Ram Mandir (in Ayodhya) is being erected, that too with people’s money,” Thackeray said.

  • ‘COVID-19 hasn’t gone away’: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray asks people to wear masks

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday appealed to the people of the state not to lower their guard against COVID-19 in view of the rise in cases, and said they should continue to wear face masks to prevent the spread of infection.

    Although the number of hospitalisation (on account of coronavirus) is low, everyone should be alert and cautious as the virus has not gone away completely as yet, he said. A statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said that Thackeray made the appeal to the people during the weekly meeting of the state cabinet here.

    On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported 470 coronavirus positive cases, the highest daily count since March 5. Of these, Mumbai recorded 295 cases, the highest single-day rise since February 12. The statement said that Mumbai has reported 52.79 per cent rise in COVID-19 cases, while it was 68.75 per cent in Palghar district, 27.92 per cent in Thane district and 18.52 per cent in Raigad.

    The chief minister observed that the state’s weekly coronavirus positivity rate is 1.59 per cent with Mumbai and Pune reporting more positivity than the state’s average. At present only one COVID-19 patient is on ventilator, while 18 patients are on oxygen support, Thackeray said in the statement.

    “Mask and vaccination is necessary. At present 92.27 per cent people above the age of 18 have got the first dose of vaccination and the health department has been asked to expedite the process further,” he said.