Hard lobbying has started to nominate NCP leader late Ajit Pawar’s younger son Jay Pawar for the biennial election of the legislative council. The election for the 10 MLC seats has been announced, of which the NCP will get one. There is a demand that for that lone seat junior Pawar should be considered, as he is capable of leading the party in the state council and can be the party’s youth face in the state. Earlier, his elder brother Parth Pawar was elected to the Rajya Sabha, and his mother Sunetra Pawar is the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. If a decision is made, it will be put the entire family in command of politics.
Shelar dropped from Padma Award panel
Senior BJP minister Ashish Shelar has been dropped from the Padma Award committee protocol minister Jaykumar Rawal heads. As per tradition, the cultural minister is part of this Padma Award committee, but surprisingly, the head of the panel has dropped the cultural minister, Shelar, who is also way more senior to Rawal. It is being interpreted as a big and powerful message that is talked about in the political circle. The Padma Award committee’s job is to recommend the names of eminent cultural and influential figures from the state for conferment of various civilian awards that are granted by the Central government.
Senior journalist to be in charge of state media
Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan has named another senior journalist, Govind Yetayekar, to be in charge of the state media. Govind earlier worked in various capacities, from the print media Sakal newspaper to the electronic Zed 24 Taas Marathi, and in 2014, the BJP government appointed him as media advisor to the erstwhile education minister Vinod Tawade, who is currently the BJP national general secretary and in charge of Bihar BJP. Before Govind, another ABP Majha journalist, Navnath Bang, was the BJP state media in-charge. Bang was recently elected as a BMC corporator, so in his place, another journalist has been appointed.
Sudhir Suryawanshi
Our correspondent in Maharashtra
suryawanshi.sudhir@gmail.com