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    Maharashtra political climate heats up ahead of February local body polls

    Synopsis

    The MVA government seems to have taken a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee's feud with the Centre in its dealing with the BJP. So, if the ED, IT and CBI conduct probes on MVA leaders like Anil Deshmukh, Anil Parab and others, then the state uses the Anti Corruption Bureau.

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    The Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation will go to polls in February.
    Political parties in Maharashtra are not taking the local body polls, scheduled for next February, lightly. A highly vitiated atmosphere is building up, with a Union minister getting arrested, a BJP leader being detained in his home when he tried to register a police complaint, ED and IT raids against ministers - dramatic moves almost similar to the build-up to the recent West Bengal polls.

    The Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation will go to polls in February.

    On Sunday, the Mumbai police briefly detained BJP leader Kirit Somaiya after he said he would file a case of corruption before the Kolhapur police against NCP minister Hasan Mushrif. Somaiya's detention at his home made the BJP workers come all out in support of him. They called his detention illegal and a sign of 'emergency'.

    Somaiya has been raising allegations of corruption against several Shiv Sena and NCP ministers and had asked the ED and IT to investigate cases against NCP ministers like Mushrif and Shiv Sena minister Anil Parab. He has also spoken of financial irregularities in a land deal involving the chief minister's wife Rashmi Thackeray.

    State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil has now said that two more Congress ministers' dubious financial dealings will be 'exposed' by the BJP in the coming days.

    The MVA government seems to have taken a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee's feud with the Centre in its dealing with the BJP. So, if the ED, IT and CBI conduct probes on MVA leaders like Anil Deshmukh, Anil Parab and others, then the state uses the Anti Corruption Bureau.

    The State Anti Corruption Bureau has conducted raids in the BJP-ruled Pune Municipal Corporation and the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. The Maharashtra government is already investigating alleged irregularities pertaining to former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis's Jal Yukt Shivar project. There is already a petition in the Bombay High Court where financial irregularities in the Mumbai Bank, run by Pravin Darekar, the opposition leader in the legislative council, are to be probed. The state is likely to favour a probe into the bank.



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