અમદાવાદના જમાલપુર દરવાજા (Ahmedabad)પાસે આવેલી હજીરાની પોળમાં રહેતા રિયાઝુદ્દીન ઉર્ફે રાજુ શેખ કે જેઓ આર આર ટ્રાન્સપોર્ટના વ્યવસાય સાથે સંકળાયેલા હતા.

પોલીસને શંકા છે કે પહેલા પતિએ પત્નીની ચપ્પા વડે હત્યા કરી હતી અને પછી પોતે આત્મહત્યા કરી લીધી હશે.

Representational picture

In a jolt to its ally Shiv Sena which had "hijacked" the family of its late MP, its ally Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday won the bypoll to Maharashtra's Palghar Lok Sabha seat.

BJP's Rajendra Gavit defeated his nearest rival, Shriniwas Vanga of the Sena and the son of sitting MP Chintaman Vanga, whose death in January had necessitated the bypoll.

"I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and all the party leaders and workers for this victory," he said.

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The semi-decomposed body of BJP's women's cell district president Rupali Chavan, 38, allegedly murdered, was found inside her Nalasopara flat last morning. According to sources, she had been unreachable for the last two days to her friends and party workers. A close friend visited her flat on Tuesday and found the door locked from outside. The window, however, was ajar, so she asked a person from the building to enter and look inside. That's how the body, having several injury marks and wrapped in a woollen blanket, was discovered.

Rupali Chavan

Flatmate missing
A police officer said the house was in disarray, suggesting a scuffle between Chavan and the accused, who allegedly attacked her with sharp weapons, going by the state of her injuries, or the accused himself/herself turned everything upside down searching for cash and valuables. A divorcee, she lived with a 25-year-old man in the rented flat, which was close to her maternal home. Her 12-year-old son lives with her parents. While investigation indicates that the person she was living with was her boyfriend, some say he was her servant. The police suspect his involvement in the murder as he is missing.

While her family members grieve. Pics/Hanif Patel

Policespeak
Chavan was very active politically and had ventured into business too, with her shoe shop in Nalasopara East all set for inauguration. SDPO (Nalasopara division) Datta Totewar said, "We have registered a case of murder against an unknown accused. Going by the state of the body, we suspect the murder was committed a day or two back. Her mobile phone is missing, as is the person living with her. We are searching for him."

Also Read: Woman's decomposed body found in almirah

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Ram Kadam has issued a clarification on his 'elope' remark and said that his statement was quoted out of context.

The BJP MLA from Ghatkopar constituency faced a backlash after a video of him where he can be reportedly heard saying that he would kidnap a girl even if she refuses a proposal from a boy and help him elope with her, surfaced on media.

Clarifying his stance on the issue, Kadam told ANI, "A 40-second incomplete video is being circulated by opposition leaders. I would only request them to listen to my complete statement. If my statement has hurt anyone, I won¿t mind expressing regret for the same."

"My statement is being quoted out of context. At that event, I said that all youngsters whether it be a boy or girl should take their parents" in confidence before marrying. If they elope without taking their permission, the parents feel disheartened and it is very wrong to disappoint your parents. After saying so I took a long pause and someone from the audience said something which I repeated on the mike. I also kept speaking after that as well but it was not reported. If I had said anything objectionable, it was being live telecasted and there were a number of journalists present at the venue and someone would have pointed it out. But no one raised an objection because they had heard me completely. To find the true meaning of an address one must listen to it completely," he added.

The BJP MLA made the statement during a 'Dahi Handi' festival organised in Mumbai on the auspicious occasion of 'Janmashtami' on Monday.

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A large haul of weapons, including 170 guns, swords, machetes and knives, was found at the shop of a local BJP functionary in Dombivli, the police said on Wednesday. Dhananjay Kulkarni, deputy chief of BJP's Dombivli city unit in Thane district, from whose store the seizure was made, has been arrested, police said. The 170 weapons were found during a raid conducted by the Kalyan Crime Branch at Kulkarni's fashion accessories store in Tilak Nagar on Monday night, the police said. The cops added that he was arrested on Tuesday morning.

A local BJP leader said Kulkarni was the vice-president of the party's Dombivli unit. "Following a tip-off, the raid was conducted at Tapasya House of Fashion, which sells fashion accessories and cosmetics," a police officer said. "The weapons for sale included eight air guns, 10 swords, 38 press button knives, 25 choppers, nine kukris, nine guptis (bladed weapon concealed in a wooden case), five knives, three axes and a sickle," he added. "The seized weapons are collectively worth R1.86 lakh. The outlet has been operating for the past seven months," the officer said.

"Kulkarni had procured the arms from Crawford Market, and Punjab and Rajasthan," he added. The accused was on Tuesday produced before a local court, which remanded him in judicial custody, police said. The NCP has demanded an explanation from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the arms seizure. State NCP President Jayant Patil said the incident revealed the manner in which the BJP wanted to rule."What kind of riots do the BJP want to incite by using these weapons?" he said.

170
No. of weapons recovered from the shop

Rs 1.86 lakh
Total worth of the weapons

Also Read: Bal Thackeray plotted to kill Sonu Nigam, says Nilesh Rane; Sena MP rubbishes claim

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Maharashtra minister Eknath Shinde has expressed confidence that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will win the Lok Sabha polls and asked the coalition workers to work for increasing the victory margin this time. Addressing a meeting of Shiv Sena-BJP workers at Dombivli town in Maharashtra's Thane district on Sunday night, the senior Sena leader also asked them not to be reckless or underestimate the rival candidates. "Our victory is definite this time also.

Our target should be to ensure maximum difference of votes between the winning and losing candidates," said Shinde, who is also the guardian minister of Thane. Lauding Srikant Shinde, the sitting Sena MP from Kalyan seat in Thane, for the work done by him in his constituency in the last five years, the minister claimed the voters would elect him this time also. State minister Ravindra Chavan said voters in Dombivli segment of the constituency earlier supported the BJP and Shiv Sena and this time also they will ensure victory for the alliance candidate.

"This election is an important one and the party workers should ensure that our candidate wins by the maximum victory margin," he said. Srikant Shinde is the saffron alliance's candidate from Kalyan where his main rival is Babaji Patil of the NCP. Lok Sabha elections to total 48 seats in Maharashtra will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29 and the results will be declared on May 23.

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Three local MNS activists have been booked for allegedly beating a BJP worker in Thane district of Maharashtra over a post forwarded by him on WhatsApp which they found offending, police said on Tuesday.

According to the complaint filed by the BJP activist, Pradeep Rane, on Sunday he received a post on WhatsApp about the MNS along with a picture of its party chief Raj Thackeray, Rabodi police station's senior inspector R M Somavanshi said. Rane forwarded the post to some other people. Later, three MNS workers also saw the post and felt offended following which they thrashed Rane, he said.

The complainant alleged that he apologised and also deleted the post from his mobile phone, but the MNS workers allegedly made a video-recording of the beating incident which they posted on social media and also aired on a local channel, the official said.

Based on his complaint, the police registered a case against the three MNS activists under IPC Sections 452 (house- trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace) and 500 (defamation), he said. No arrest has been made so far, he said, adding that a probe was underway into the incident.

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A video purportedly showing bodies of COVID-19 victims lying unattended near coronavirus patients at a civic-run hospital here has surfaced, following which a BJP MLA hit out at the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Latching on to the video, BJP legislator Nitesh Rane said this shows the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) does not pay attention to the safety of patients.

The video purportedly showed some bodies lying near COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment at the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Sion area of Mumbai. Rane tagged the video in a tweet on the micro-blogging site on Wednesday night. "The Sion hospital has shown utmost negligence by letting COVID-19 patients sleep among the bodies of those who died of the same disease. The BMC boasts of being the richest civic body but pays no attention towards the safety of patients," the BJP leader said on Thursday.

He noted that the hospital in Sion mostly gets patients from Dharavi, the biggest slum area in the country. "Is this how we treat our working class? Such carelessness of the medical staff and the Sion hospital could result in further spread of coronavirus infection," he said. As the video stirred a controversy, the hospital's dean Dr Pramod Ingale said relatives of the those who died of COVID-19 are reluctant to take the bodies. "That is the reason why the bodies were kept there unattended. We have now removed the bodies and are probing the matter," he said.

Asked why the bodies were not shifted to a mortuary, Ingale said, "There are 15 slots in the hospitals mortuary of which 11 are already filled. If we shift all the bodies to the mortuary, it will be a problem for bodies of those who died of causes other than COVID-19." Till Wednesday, Mumbai reported 10,527 COVID-19 cases and 412 deaths.

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A media report has it that the Centre recently asked Twitter to take down over a hundred tweets that could be deemed offensive and could hurt religious sentiments.

The poem describes the majestic ruler who bravely fought in the war fields, riding on his Chetak (horse) and Ramprasad (the elephant) killing all this opponents with his sword, the symbol of Rana Prathap's power.

The BJP swept the polls in UP, pocketing 14 of the 16 mayoral seats as Yogi Adityanath emerged on top in his first major electoral test after taking over as chief minister in March.

Satish Achraya on... BJP changing the nation's father

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been able to ward off a Congress onslaught and is all set to retain its bastion of Gujarat, according to the results of the India Today-Axis-My- India exit poll.

The saffron party is facing a peculiar situation in the state after the electorate voted for the party, but rejected the chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal to vote for his former aide.

Despite earlier fears about traders supposedly irate over GST, demonetisation and anti-incumbency after 22 years of rule upsetting the BJP applecart in the state, Modi led his party to a nailbiting win.

Rahul Gandhi and the Congress should take heart in the fight back against odds and prepare for 2019, writes V Narasimhan.

Satish Acharya on... BJP Gujarat losses.

BJP has finally achieved its objective of capturing power in Assam, a goal which it had been pursuing since the 1980s

The Trinamool has favoured passage of the GST Bill and also mentioned it in its manifesto during the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2011 assembly elections

To read the results as a saffron surge or decimation of the Congress is to miss the big picture

In this Assembly polls, BJP has not only garnered around 56 lakh votes, but has also made its presence felt in 262 out of 294 Assembly segments

He wrested Nemom from sitting MLA and vibrant CPI(M)-LDF leader V Sivankutty defeating him by 8,671 votes

30 injured people have been hospitalised

The party on Wednesday released seven handouts on the government's achievements in the past two years in various fields

Shah also said the Modi-led govt in the remaining three years will fulfill all the promises made in the run up to Lok Sabha polls

The nationwide lockdown was extended till May 3 after the announcement by the PM as states called for the extension to check the rapid spread of the viral infection

Addressing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Gandhi said this should worry every Indian and the Congress will have to work hard to repair this damage

He also expressed gratitude towards BJP workers, saying they worked day and night for the party's victory

Tiwari had asserted that his party will win more than 45 seats in the 70-member Assembly and form the government

Business Standard's Ankur Bhardwaj interviews political editors Archis Mohan and Aditi Phadnis about Delhi election results

The results for the elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly were announced on Tuesday, with the AAP nearly replicating its stunning performance of 2015, winning 62 seats

The Shiv Sena praised Delhi Chief Minister and AAP president Arvind Kejriwal, saying he single-handedly took on the 'army of BJP leaders'

Sharmishtha is daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, who has been a Congress leader all his life

From Bijwasan to Patparganj, these constituencies saw the smallest gaps between the vote shares of the winner and the runner-up

The meetings were also attended by party candidates, councillors and local leaders

Kishor also rubbished the contention that a tie-up with the BJP was in the interest of Bihar, a claim Kumar has been making to defend his realignment with the saffron party

Exit polls predicted a win for the DMK-Congress alliance in Puducherry too, ousting the ruling All India NR Congress

As per trends, J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK appears to be winning Tamil Nadu for a straight second term, bucking the tradition since 1989 when a ruling party has not returned to power

According to latest trends, Soundararajan was in the third position behind the candidates of DMK and AIADMK

BJP wins in Assam, opens account in Kerala; Congress loses two states; Left sweeps Kerala; Mamata decimates Opposition in West Bengal

Centre to launch ambitious job scheme on Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary

BJP corporators in the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) have refused to contribute to the COVID-19 relief fund, citing lack of transparency in the affairs of the civic body in Maharashtra's Thane city. Corporators from other parties have contributed Rs 5 lakh to the fund, following an appeal from Mayor Naresh Mhaske. In a letter to the Mayor, BJP leader Sanjay Waghule alleged that there was no transparency in the civic body's COVID-19 relief activities, which is why party corporators would not make any contribution to the TMC's COVID-19 fund. He further claimed that BJP corporators were not invited to the meeting called by Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde to discuss a 1,000-bed COVID-19 treatment facility. Meanwhile, the Mayor in a written communication pointed out that the BJP had welcomed the idea of a relief fund for COVID-19 and now it was backing away from it. There are 23 BJP corporators in the house of 131 corporators in the TMC.

BJP leaders on Saturday reacted strongly to rumours about Home Minister Amit Shah's health, with party president J P Nadda terming these as "inhuman" comments which are "extremely condemnable". Several leaders of the ruling party took to Twitter to express their anguish at the rumours on social media after Shah put out a statement to assert that he was "totally healthy" and rejected speculation of his ill-health. They also wished Shah, Nadda's predecessor as party president, a long and healthy life. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said spreading such rumours could be a "political ploy" of those who are rattled by Shah's working style and decisions. Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain claimed that people behind them are "enemies of the nation". In his tweet, Nadda said, "Making inhuman comments about the health of Home Minister Amit Shah is extremely condemnable. Spreading such misleading remarks about anyone's health shows the mindset of people doing so. I strongly condemn

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Karnataka Power Minister K S Eshwarappa has alleged that liquor had been used to woo voters to vote for Chief Minister B S Yedyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra, who won the recently-held Lok Sabha polls from Shimoga.Eshwarappa's comments come in the wake of Yeddyurappa's allegations about the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader not doing enough to ensure that his won wins by a larger margin.

'If they get less than 150, they will be communal as far as the other parties are concerned. 150 will be a communal number and 150 and above will be a secular number!' Cho Ramaswamy on the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

'The BJP ran a miserable campaign and the Third Front, happily, was clueless. It also showed the disutility of a negative campaign where the BJP could not proffer any viable policy alternatives to Congress,' says Professor Sumit Ganguly.

In a no-holds-barred conversation, Chandan Mitra, editor and managing director of The Pioneer, member of the Rajya Sabha and BJP supporter, tells Savera R Someshwar that the blame for the failure lies squarely at the party's door.

The entire episode of BJP leader Lalkrishna Advani's resignation from the party and its subsequent meek withdrawal not only breaks the myth of his capacity for brinkmanship, but may also prove to be a spoiler for the party in the run up to the Lok Sabha, says B.S. Nagaraj.

Congress vs BJP in Delhi