A sweet surprise
Former union minister and Nationalist Congress Party founder president Sharad Pawar surely knows how to fulfil promises.
Officials at the meteorology department in Pune were in for a surprise when a group of NCP activists reached IMD office at Shivaji Nagar with a bag full of sugar. Upon inquiry, the officials learnt that the sugar had been sent to them as a gift by none other than Sharad Pawar.
It so happened that a few days ago Pawar took a jibe at weather department and said that he will gift them a bag full of sugar from Baramati sugarcane if their predictions about rain turned out to be true. As luck would have it, the prediction for Maharashtra came true.
True to his words, Pawar then instructed his party workers in Baramati to send a bag full of sugar to Pune. This bag, containing 50 kilos of sugar produced from finest variety of sugarcane grown in Baramati, was then handed over to senior NCP leader Ankush Kakade. Kakade and other local NCP leaders from Pune then took it Indian Meteorology Department office at Shivaji Nagar and handed it over to IMD officials. Kakade and other actually fed spoonful of sugar to a few IMD officials like Dr A .K. Shrivastava, P.K. Nandankar.
An unusual request
BJP and Shiv Sena leaders from Aurangabad have made an unusual request to police and district administration to allow their activists to play cards and gamble inside Ganesh pandals during the Ganesh festival nights.
Aurangabad district administration had organised a meeting of elected representatives to discuss rules and regulations for Ganesh Festival. During the meeting BJP legislator Atul Save and Shiv Sena legislator Sanjay Shirsat urged officials to allow their activists to play cards and gamble.
The legislators said that activists kept vigil at night at the Ganesh pandals and they play cards in order to pass time. Police should ignore if they find someone gambling during these games of cards. The legislators also advised their activists to gamble only with small amount of money. They said that if activists gamble with bigger amounts of money it could lead to fights among activists over money.
Local Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire even suggested that those activists who win money during the gambling rounds should utilise the same amount for expenses related to the festival and not pocket the same.
So much for the devotion to Lord Ganesha.
Shiv Sena hurt by rout
Shiv Sena is deeply hurt with BJP's recent sweep in Mira-Bhainder Municipal Corporation (MBMC) elections. BJP won 61 out of 95 seats in the recent elections to MBMC. The tally was limited to 22, Congress won 10, NCP could not win a single seat as independents won on two seats.
Shiv Sena has now claimed that the BJP won the elections because of 'Money and Muni'.
The word Muni refers to Jain monks who advised large number of Jain community voters to vote for the party which supports ban on animal slaughter during 'Paryushan Parva', auspicious time for Jain community. BJP has always supported ban on animal slaugther during Paryushan Parva period to respect the sentiments of Jains.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut was so furious with Jain monks that he equated them with controversial preacher Zakir Naik. He also said that Shiv Sena will take up the issue of campaign by Jain monks to election commission.
An open berth
Senior BJP leader and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil has expressed his desire to give up public works department portfolio for Narayan Rane. There has been a lot of speculation about Narayan Rane's plans to join the BJP. Patil, who was recently in Sindhudurg, was asked whether Rane's plan to join the BJP is stuck because he is keen on PWD portfolio. Replying to this Patil said that he would be most happy to welcome Rane to BJP and he will give up PWD portofolio if Rane is so keen on it.
