Eknath Shinde

In the video-clip, Ports & Mines Minister Dada Dagadu Bhuse, attired in his trademark white with a snowy beard, is seen and heard rebuking two unidentified persons, giving them punches, abusing them in the lowest language.

The spat between independent legislators Bachhu Kadu, who is founder of the Prahar Janshakti Party and Ravi Rana of the Yuva Swabhiman Party - both hailing from Amravati - came to a point where the former threatened to withdraw support to the Shinde regime if the latter did not withdraw certain allegations, prompting the Shinde-Fadnavis duo to mediate.

The probe would cover the measures taken during the two pandemic years -- 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 -- and into the allegations of corruption and irregularities in awarding various contracts without tenders. These included setting up several Covid Care facilities in the city and procurement for the Jumbo field hospitals erected during the pandemic years, according to an official statement from the CMO on Monday.

However, the protection given to NCP President Sharad Pawar, Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, NCP MP Supriya Sule, NCP MLA Dr. Jitendra Awhad and certain others has not been touched. Those whose security has been removed include three ex-home ministers - State NCP President Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal and Anil Deshmukh, currently in jail.

Continuing to target the ruling alliance of Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) continued to target Shinde-Fadnavis for allegedly working in the interests of Gujarat at the cost of Maharashtra.

NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said that after the Vedanta-Foxconn project was shifted to Gujarat in mid-September, Shinde had assured the people of this state that the Tata-Airbus military aircraft manufacturing plant will come up in Nagpur. "However, now it transpires that even the Tata-Airbus project of Rs 21,935 crore for manufacturing 56 aircraft will come up in Gujarat... CM Shinde has not commented on this so far," he said.

"They are children of farmers, labourers, ordinary families who sent their children to acquire education at these schools run by the districts. If these schools are closed, then these people from the poor strata shall be totally deprived of educationa It will be like a sin," he told CM Shinde.

The EC has made the interim arrangement to enable the party put up a candidate for the upcoming by-polls to Andheri East assembly elections and till the dispute into the matter is resolved. The EC rejected CM Shinde's other option -- a Sun with rays -- as it resembled the symbols allotted to some other parties.

In an interim order on Saturday, the poll panel said that neither of the two groups led by Eknath Shinde and other led by Uddhav Thackeray be permitted to use the name of the party "Shiv Sena" and neither of the two groups shall also be permitted to use the symbol "Bow & Arrow", reserved for "Shiv Sena".

In the letter issued on Friday, the Commission said that it received an application from the (incumbent Maharashtra Chief Minister) Eknath Shinde faction on October 4 to allot the symbol of the party 'Bow and Arrow' to the group led by Shinde in view of ongoing bye-election from 166-Andheri East Assembly Constituency.