Maharashtra:Ruling parties calls bandh,Traders' oppose

This week, schools and religious places open in Maharashtra as the festival season starts and in by elections for local bodies BJP scores well in Zilla Parishads but MVA leads the tally.

Schools reopen: Chief Minister urges parents to take care of their children’s health

After remaining closed for over one and a half year, schools reopened in Maharashtra on Monday, 5th October for students of Class V to XII in rural areas  and VIII to XII in urban areas. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that care must be taken by staff to ensure that class room windows are kept open and rooms are ventilated . Speaking during an online interaction with parents and students, he said that the government was in regular consultation the State COVID-19 task force. A decision to reopen schools in a phased manner was taken last month following a survey conducted by the School Education Department.

Religious places also open across the state

Religious places also opened on Thursday, 7th October with several big temples making online booking compulsory to avoid overcrowding. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray himself along with his family offered prayers in Mumba Devi temple in Mumbai. He appreciated the fact that temple authorities have used technology to arrange darshan through e-pass system and QR ode scanning.The issue of opening of temples and other religious places which were closed since March last year, had turned into a political battle between MVA coalition led by Thackeray  and the BJP and other parties like Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

Maharashtra local bodies bypolls : Congress comes off best in the coalition

The Maha Vikas Aghadi in Mahrashtra overwhelmed the BJP in byelection results of 85  zila parishad and 144 panchayat samiti seats announced on Wednesday,The bypolls were held in six districts -Nagpur, Akola, Washim, Latur, Dhule and Palghar. There were 367 candidates in the fray in the ZP polls and 555 candidates for the panchayat samiti seats. While the three parties together won 46 of the 85 seats in the ZP bypolls , the BJP emerged the single largest party here, winning 23 seats. However, most remarkable was the Congress’ performance with the party coming off best within the coalition, winning 17 ZP seats and bagging 35 seats among all parties(including the BJP) in the panchayat samiti bypolls.

The MVA won a total of 73 of the 144 seats with the BJP winning 33. The Shiv Sena and the NCP managed to win 12 and 17 ZP seats respectively, while bagging  22 and 16 panchayat samiti seats respectively..

The MVA allies call Bandh on Monday 

The ruling parties in  Maharashtra announced in a joint press conference in Mumbai on Saturday that all the three parties will join the Maharashtra bandh with full force which has been called on Monday, 11th October against the killing of farmers in Lakhimpur Khiri. It was announced in the press conference that services will not be hit during bandh. Addressing the press conference along with NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik and state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that he had discussed the need for a joint opposition strategy with NCP’s Sharad Pawar and Congress’ Rahul Gandhi. He also said that other states must follow  Maharashtra’s lead to express solidarity with farmers.

A union of traders in Maharashtra has objected to the state government calling a bandh on Monday. The traders' union in a statement  on Sunday said they are only limping back to business after intermittent lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the bandh would hit their earnings. The Federation of Retail Traders' Welfare Association or FRTWA, however, said it does not support the bandh. "We oppose the killing of farmers in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri. Whoever was responsible for the killings should be punished. But FRTWA does not support any bandh called by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government," the traders' group chief Viren Shah said in a video statement. "We appeal to the government to allow retail businesses to remain open. We hope that shopkeepers are not harassed or forced to remain shut,"  Shah said .

Traders associations have decided to keep Pune Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) closed on Monday by participating in a Maharashtra bandh.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has condemned the Maharashtra bandh decision and the leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said that the ruling parties are politicising the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.