Vol. 67 No. 142 | THURSDAY | MARCH 14, 2024 | 27 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in MEMBER: AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper BJP LIST HAS FADNAVIS STAMP Gadkari, Goyal, Pankaja figure in the list while five sitting MPs dropped FPJ POLITICAL BUREAU / MUMBAI E NITIN GADKARI Nagpur PANKAJA MUNDE Beed ven though the seat sharing talks with the Shiv Sena and the NCP are still on, the BJP went ahead and unilaterally announced the first of its 20 candidates in Maharashtra. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, whose name was missing in the first list, has been re-nominated from Nagpur, while Union Minister Piyush Goyal has been fielded from North Mumbai, replacing sitting MP Gopal Shetty . Apart from Shetty the BJP has , dropped Umesh Patil in Jalgaon, Manoj Kotak in Mulund, Sanjay Dhotre in Akola and Preetam Munde in Beed. The list has the inedible imprint of deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis. The party has nominated Pankaja, who was sulking on the political periphery since her defeat in 2019 assembly elections, from Beed. Pankaja had been hitting out at the leadership, without taking any names, for not being given due representation in the party functioning. She will ride on the legacy of her father and OBC leader Gopinath Munde in addition to Modi ki guarantee. The party has re-nominated three union ministers from the state -- Dr Bharti Pawar, Raosaheb Dance and Kapil Patil; they have been retained their existing seats of Dindori (ST), Jalna and Bhiwandi, respectively Maha. rashtra’s Forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who was reluctant to be in the fray will be contesting from Chan, drapur in Vidarbha, a lone seat won by the Congress in the 2019 polls. The party has nominated Mihir Kotecha from Mumbai north east replacing Manoj Kotak, while Akola’s LS MP Sanjay Dhotre, who is bed-ridden due to illness, will be replaced by his son Anup Dhotre. In Pune, the party has given ticket to former Pune mayor Muralidhar Mohol. The seat was lying vacant after the demise of BJP MP Girish Bapat. Mohol has been a close confidant of Fadnavis. Mohol belongs to the political influential Maratha community BJP has re. cently nominated former legislator Medha Kulkarni, who is a Brahmin, to the Rajya Sabha. The BJP has also switched Unmesh Patil from Jalgaon LS constituency and former MLA Smita Wagh will be the CONTD. ON NATION new candidate. Shetty omission is a big shocker FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI The decision to deny a ticket to sitting Lok Sabha MP Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North has come as a big shock to the BJP cadres. The party has instead given ticket to Union minister Piyush Goyal who incidentally is a SoBo resident. Recently , Shetty who is a party veteran , and former president of Mumbai BJP came in for crit, icism from the Sangh Parivar for supporting a ‘dargah’ in his constituency . Shetty was extremely popular in the Gujarati-dominated constituency He started . his career as a corporator, MLA and M.P The seat was . earlier held by Ram Naik who converted it into a BJP bastion. It is because the seat is perceived to be a safe that Goyal has been nominated from here. Congress neta Nirupam meets BJP neta Chavan SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE / MUMBAI PIYUSH GOYAL North Mumbai Former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan is now a Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP It was widely expected that many Congress . leaders would join the BJP in his stead. Now, his gameplan is beginning to unfold, according to sources. Meanwhile, the Congress and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) have both staked claim to the northwest constituency But Shiv . Sena (UBT) had announced the candidature of Amol Kirtikar even before the seat allotment was announced. Sanjay NiruCONTD. ON NATION pam of the Congress had expressed Quota for women, here & now: Rahul `1 lakh for poor women for one year the Central government share towards the salary of ASHA workers, anganwadi The Congress Party has de- sevikas and helpers would be clared five guarantees for doubled under the ‘Shakti ka women empowerment in In- Sanman’ scheme. dia: ‘Mahila Nyay Guarantee’, To create awareness and ‘Mahalaxmi Guarantee’, provide legal help to women, ‘Half Population Full Rights’, a legal consultant would be ‘Shakti ka Sanman’, ‘ dhikar appointed at the gram-panA Maitri’ and the ‘Savitribai chayat level under the ‘ dA Phule Women’s Hostel’. hikar Maitri’ scheme. This five-point agenda was Women’s hostels would be announced by the Congress constructed at the district-levpresident, Mallikarjun el under the Savitribai Phule Kharge, during the ‘Bharat Women’s Hostel scheme. Jodo Nyay Yatra’ organised Earlier, the Congress had by party MP Rahul Gandhi. announced farmers’ rights, Kharge was present through youth and partnership jusvideo conferencing. tice guarantees. Kharge said, He said that poor women ‘‘Our guarantees are not holwould get Rs 1 lakh in assis- low, or fake ‘jumlas’. Our tance from the government guarantees are set in stone. for one year under its Maha- Since 1926, we have been laxmi Guarantee scheme, making manifestos. We will while 50 per cent of govern- fulfil our promises.’’ He apment jobs would go to women pealed to citizens to stand beunder its Half Population hind the Congress and save Full Rights scheme. Further, democracy CONTD. ON NATION . KALPESH MHAMUNKAR MUMBAI EC VACANCIES: TOP COURT HEARING ON CJI EXCLUSION OUR BUREAU / NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea from an NGO on Friday , challenging the exclusion of the Chief Justice of India from a panel to select the election commissioners. The panel headed by Prime Minister Modi is to meet the same day to fill up the two vacancies of election commissioner – one who retired and another who resigned. The plea was filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, questioning validity of a provision of the 2023 Act which states the selection panel will be chaired by the PM, the leader of Opposition and a PM-nominated union minister. The matter was mentioned before a bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna by advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), one of the petitioners in the case. The bench said that it had received a message from CJI DY Chandrachud and would list the plea for hearing this Friday "We got a message . from the Chief Justice of India. We will list this on Friday Justice Khanna said. ," The Supreme Court has twice refused to the new law, which allows appointment to the posts of CEC and Election Commissioners by a selection committee comprising the Prime Minister (PM), a Union Cabinet Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. CONTD. ON NATION LAST WORD NCP maange more, BJP likely to relent SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE MUMBAI Has the rift in the grand alliance been resolved? The NCP (Ajit Pawar) grouping has been miffed over the offer of 4 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Acutely aware that it may lead to the Ajit Pawar group playing a marginal role on the political periphery it had decided to play , hardball with the BJP which , has now veered round to the view that seven seats would be more in keeping with the status of Pawar and his role in the future scheme of things. So, as per the new formula, the BJP can contest 30 seats, the Shinde group can settle for 11 and the Pawar group can rest its laurels on 7. Unless the Shinde camp throws a tantrum, the grand alliance seat allocation can be expected in the next two to three days. A lot will however depend on the sagacity of the BJP leadership and its willingness to share political space with smaller parties, especially since the NCP has a strong presence in some districts of the state. Also, the state BJP leadership, more than the High Command, has not been inclined to bend backwards and concede more than 3 seats to the NCP which has only one , MP within its ranks. CONTD. ON NATION DGIPR 2023-24/9897