Congress wins prestige battle in Nanded, Ashok Chavan bounces back

MUMBAI: After he was told to quit as chief minister in 2010 by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi following the Adarsh case, Ashok Chavan’s detractors believed that his political career was over, but he has proved them wrong.
Chavan has emerged more powerful particularly after the Nanded civic polls, which was a litmus test for him. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Chavan was the Congress nominee from Nanded and Narendra Modi campaigned against him.Chavan won his constituency by a huge margin, Congress won only two seats—Nanded and Hingoli—out of 48 Lok Sabha constituencies from the state. In the assembly polls, Congress lost power to the BJP, but Chavan retained his control over Nanded.
The election to the Nanded civic body, which was controlled by the Congress since its formation in 1997, was crucial. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve made it a prestige contest. Ministers and senior leaders were drafted for campaigning and many candidates were “imported” from MIM and NCP to ensure Chavan’s defeat. But Chavan secured a record 73 seats out of 81.
Maha transport woes
State transport minister Diwakar Raote from the Shiv Sena is taking flak for his “inept” handling of the strike call given by over one lakh employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). “Raote did not take the strike notice seriously, as a result lakhs of passengers were left stranded during the festive season,” said a bureaucrat.
Ultimately, the strike was called off following the intervention of the HC. The court asked the state government to set up a special committee to examine the issues raised by the striking employees. Experts said that Raote should have asked the MSRTC to approach the HC to declare the strike illegal and should have roped in Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Fadnavis to resolve the dispute.
Trailblazing woman cop
Meeran Chadha Borwankar, a 1981-batch IPS officer who came in the limelight after she successfully probed into the Jalgaon sex scandal that involved many prominent people, retired recently.
The execution of two convicts was the most sensitive assignment. As the head of the prison department, she was entrusted with the responsibility of executing Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving terrorist in the 26/11 attack and 1993 blasts convict Yakub Memon. Kasab was executed in complete secrecy, but the date of Memon’s execuation was known to all. As the first woman to head the Mumbai crime branch, Borwankar had the distinction of being the first woman police chief of Pune.