ULHASNAGAR: A fresh tussle broke out in Ulhasnagar on Wednesday between BJP and Shiv Sena over credit for houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), intensifying the ongoing rivalry between the two parties in the Kalyan LS Sabha constituency. The Ulhasnagar civic body has announced an ini-tiative to provide affordable homes for economically weaker sections and has issued a tender for construction of 3,578 hou-ses at an estimated cost of Rs 723 crore, BJP MLA Kumar Ailani said he had pursued the matter of the scheme with govt. Soon af-ter Ailani’s claims, Sena functionaries held a separate press meet saying the BJP MLA was trying to take “undue credit.” Se-na’s Kalyan city chief Rajendra Chaudhary argued the demand for the project was put forth by Sena corporators to MP Shri-kant Shinde, who pursued the matter with state govt.

AMBERNATH: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a blow ahead of the upcoming Ambernath municipal council election as nomina tion papers of five of its candidates were rejected during the process of scrutiny on Wednesday. In addition, one candidate from the Shiv Sena also had their nomination cancelled.According to the election office, the scrutiny of nomination papers for the municipal council elections was completed on Wednesday. The Ambernath municipal council has a total of 59 seats, and the rejection of nominations of five B.JP candidates is being viewed as a setback to the party’s election strategy and prepared ness.

According to official data, a total of 14 nomination forms were filed for the post of municipal council president, of which three were declared invalid, while 11 were accepted as valid.In Ambernath, Shiv Sena and BJP have put up their own candidates Manisha Walekar for Sena and Tejashree Karanjule for BJP for the post of president of the council. There is going to be a direct election for the president’s election, and Se-na and BJP are pitted aga-inst each other.For the council as a who le, the battle is somewhat complex: Sena vs BJP vs UBT Sena-MNS-NCP (SP) vs Congress vs NCP.For the municipal councillors’ posts, the election office received 400 applications. After verification, 54 applications were deemed invalid, and 346 were declared valid. Officials confirmed the scrutiny process was carried out strictly in accordance with the rules and guidelines.As per the election schedule, the next steps, including withdrawal of nominations and publication of final list of candidates, will be completed in the coming days. Elections are due on Dec 2.

PALGHAR: The Palghar cops have nabbed 5 accused, all Nepalese citizens, who were on the run after breaking the shutter of a cloth shop in a commercial complex in Palghar, drilled a hole in the wall of an adjacent jewellery store and decamped with gold, silver and cash worth around 4 crores on the night of November 8/9. Four of these five were nabbed at the Indo-Nepal border near Kheri in Uttar Pradesh while the fifth one was nabbed the next day, after his whereabouts were confirmed.Two of the four arrested, Deepak Singh & Khemraj Devkota, worked as security guards in the same complex where they had robbed Nakoda jewellers and studied the shops and surroundings while they worked there for around six months. Bhuvansingh Chelavune and Jivankumar Tharu, helped in robbing, while the fifth accused Arjun Soni, who was arrested from Surat in Gujarat, had melted some portion of the gold. The court has sent all of them to police remand, while the cops have formed teams to nab the remaining accused in this case.“After robbing the jewellery store they travelled Palghar to Surat by train and from there reached the border via railway route”, said Yatish Deshmukh, Palghar Superintendent of Police (SP). He also added that since the security guards were from Nepal and their identities were with us, helped us in understanding that Nepal would be their obvious choice and hence sent a team over there. He also confirmed that we have recovered around 60% of the stolen items including gold, silver and cash.

ULHASNAGAR: The BJP on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to one of its office-bearers after party workers removed the photograph of former corporator Mahesh Sukhramani from the Ulhasnagar party office, threw it outside, and smeared it with black ink. The act, carried out in protest after Sukhramani’s defection, triggered strong political reactions and exposed growing unrest within the BJP’s local unit ahead of the upcoming civic elections.Sukhramani, once considered a prominent face of the BJP in Ulhasnagar, was among six former corporators who recently left the party to join the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and its local ally Team Omie Kalani (TOK). His departure, viewed as a setback for the BJP, angered several workers who labelled his exit a “betrayal.”

Following the incident, the four leaders who joined TOK — Mahesh Sukhramani, Jamnu Puruswani, Prakash Makhija, and Ram Parwani — held a press conference sharply criticising the BJP workers’ behaviour. They said that after years of working to strengthen the BJP in the city, they were forced to leave due to internal neglect. They questioned whether disrespecting photos of leaders who exit the party was now acceptable conduct in the BJP. “Has democracy ended in the BJP party?” asked Makhija.Reacting to the controversy, BJP’s Ulhasnagar district president Rajesh Vadhrya expressed regret over the incident. He acknowledged the contributions of the former corporators and confirmed that Sukhramani’s photo had been reinstated in the party office. Vadhrya added that a show cause notice has been issued to the worker responsible, emphasizing that such actions do not reflect the values or discipline of the BJP.

MUMBAI: A day after All India Majlise Ittihadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi met minority affairs minister Kiran Rijiju and gave him a letter, seeking extension in the deadline (December 5) for uploading Waqf properties on the UMEED ( Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development) portal, AIMIM Mumbai president Haji Farooq Maqbool Shabdi too has demanded the extension of the deadline.In a statement, he said that, since the uploading process of documents is taking a lot of time, the ministry of minority affairs should increase the last date of uploading the documents of Waqf properties by six months. “There is limited manpower, technical difficulties and a huge number of Waqf properties. It is not possible to upload information about all the Waqf properties within this deadline and the ministry should accept this genuine demand of the community,” said Shabdi.

Shabdi added that uploading documents of a single Waqf property is taking 7-8 hours and people are finding it difficult to upload them. Unless the deadline is extended by at least six months, it will not be possible to upload all the documents. Shabdi is the fourth city president of AIMIM and has announced that his party will fight at least 50 seart in the upcoming BMC polls. He said he is currently strengthening the party’s cadre so as to fight the upcoming BMC elections with full force.

ULHASNAGAR: In a significant political development in Ulhasnagar, former three-time Congress corporator Godhumal Krishnani joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with his son Pravin Krishnani and a group of supporters.Krishnani formally entered the BJP in the presence of the party’s Maharashtra state president Ravindra Chavan, who welcomed him into the organisation at a programme held in Ulhasnagar.

During occassion BJP’s District President Rajesh Vadhrya, MLA Kumar Ailanj were also present.Speaking to TOI, Godhumal Krishnani said that he decided to join the BJP after observing the development work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra. He added that he felt it was the right time to become part of the BJP family.The Krishnani family is known to have a strong organisational presence and influence in their local area. With their entry, the BJP is expected to gain a strategic advantage in the concerned ward in the upcoming Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation elections.It is important to note that the BJP recently suffered a setback in Ulhasnagar after six former corporators defected from the party and joined the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and the Kalani group. Among them were three prominent leaders who had been associated with the BJP for many years. This caused disappointment among local BJP workers.To revive the morale of party workers following these departures, Ravindra Chavan addressed the cadre during the induction programme and urged them to prepare to fight the upcoming elections with renewed strength.According to party sources, Chavan also emphasised that “a party does not collapse because a few leaders leave,” and assured workers that in the wards where former corporators have quit the party, the BJP will now give opportunities to new faces.

THANE: A clear divide in the two major political alliances in the state emerged on the final day of filing nominations for the Ambernath and Badlapur municipal council elections, slated to be held on Dec 2. In Ambernath, Shiv Sena and BJP held their own respective shows of strength as their candidates – Manisha Walekar for Sena and Tejashree Karanjule for BJP – formed their nominations for the post of president of the council. There is going to be a direct election for the president’s election, and Sena and BJP are pitted against each other.

Within the MVA, differences became clearly visible. While Congress is contesting independently on 47 seats out of the total 59 and has fielded Nutan Pradeep Patil for the president’s post, alliance partners Shiv Sena (UBT), MNS and NCP (SP) have jointly fielded Anjali Raut from Sena (UBT) as candidate for president.This has made the battle complex: Sena vs BJP vs UBT Sena-MNS-NCP (SP) vs Congress vs NCP. Sena MP Shrikant Shinde said his party’s mayoral (council president) candidate will win by a huge margin. In Badlapur, Sena’s Veena Mhatre filed nomination for the president’s post. Unlike Ambernath, MVA partners in Badlapur appeared more united, with Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), Congress and sections of MNS coming together.In Ambernath, all 14 MNS candidates are contesting on the UBT Sena’s ‘mashaal’ symbol while in Badlapur, one MNS candidate will contest on the UBT symbol and two, including Badlapur city president Sangeeta Chinvankar, refused and filed nomination as independents. – Pradeep Gupta

Mumbai: Five students from KVK School in Indira Nagar, Ghatkopar West, were hospitalised on Monday afternoon after suffering suspected food poisoning from samosas purchased at the school canteen. The incident took place around 2.15 pm, shortly after the children ate the snack during their break. Teachers alerted the school management when the students began vomiting, feeling dizzy and complaining of stomach pain.The children were rushed to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar East, where doctors conducted preliminary examinations.Dr Bharti Mandal from the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital said the symptoms strongly indicated possible foodborne illness. “First two children came in complaining of nausea, followed by another three. After taking all their vitals and values, we placed all five children in a 24-hour observation period. But after some time in the evening, the parents came in and took away the children against our advice,” she said.