Uddhav Thackeray takes oath as Maharashtra CM as month-long thriller ends, six ministers also sworn in
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray took oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra, becoming the third Sena leader after Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane to occupy the post. Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai (Shiv Sena), Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal (Nationalist Congress Party), Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut (Congress) were also sworn in as ministers.
The alliance, called Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, released their Common Minimum Programme (CMP) ahead of the oath-taking ceremony. Farmers came to play a central role in the CMP, which promises immediate waivers on their loans. Among the other promises listed are reservation on jobs for local youth, subsidised clinics and canteens. Meanwhile, BJP president Amit Shah said the BJP was not betrayed by Ajit Pawar, or even Sharad Pawar, but by the Shiv Sena.
Trinamool Congress stuns BJP with West Bengal Assembly bypoll sweep, spices up 2021 battle
The Trinamool Congress made a stunning comeback, sweeping the Kaliaganj, Kharagpur-Sadar and Karimpur assembly bypolls. The wins, especially in BJP strongholds Kaliaganj and Kharagpur-Sadar, pose a strong challenge to the saffron party in the run-up to the 2021 assembly polls. Sounding alarm over the supposed state of emergency in the country, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee called the poll results are the people’s mandate against the BJP in Bengal.
The BJP candidate in Kaliaganj, where TMC clinched its first-ever win, blamed the fear sparked by the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Kamal Chandra Sarkar admitted that this factor largely swayed the minority votes towards the TMC.
In Other News
Yields of a long fight: Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao appealed to the transport employees, who have withdrawn their 52-day-old agitation, to resume work without any conditions. Rao said the government will provide Rs 100 crore to the loss-making corporation immediately and suitable employment opportunities to family members of the workers.
Shown the door: Controversial BJP lawmaker Pragya Thakur was booted out of the parliamentary consultative committee on defence and barred from the party’s parliamentary meetings for the winter session over her remark on Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse.
Neighbourly visit: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has arrived in India for a three-day visit. During the visit, the Lankan president will hold talks with Prime Minister Modi to deepen strategic bilateral ties, after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on Rajapaksa on November 19.
NRC scam?: An FIR was filed against former NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela by the Assam Public Works with the CBI, alleging huge misappropriation of government funds to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore in updating the NRC in the state.
On Our Specials
GI tags: Indore’s mouth-watering ‘poha’ and Morena’s famous sweet dish ‘gajak’ could soon attain global fame with the Madhya Pradesh government applying for Geographical Indication (GI) tags for these products. Vivek Trivedi reports that the state government has also applied for GI certification of ‘kodo and kutki’, the high-nutrition varieties of millets mostly grown by local tribals, and ‘panja dari’, carpets woven in a particular pattern.
Seismic shift: Indian politics makes for strange bedfellows, none more so than the far-right Shiv Sena and the centre-left Congress-NCP alliance. Is the odd coupling purely a marriage of convenience, or does it represent a seismic shift in the ideological spectrum of our democracy? Bhavdeep Kang writes that a coalition of the centre-right BJP and the Congress-NCP would have been less unlikely than the Congress 'hand' clasping the Sena tiger's claw.
On Reel
Every morning, Shivaji Park in Mumbai comes alive teeming with young aspiring cricketers hoping to be the next Sachin Tendulkar. But this place, albeit different reasons is also like a homeground for the Shiv Sena. CNN-News18's Uday Singh Rana explains why
Curated and compiled by Chitwan Kaur
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