Organisations Dubbed By Cong Govt As Naxal Fronts Took Part In Bharat Jodo: Fadnavis

Speaking before Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, deputy CM Eknath Shinde said the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government was the same team playing a new match.

Nagpur: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday claimed that outfits described by a past Congress government as "frontal organisations" of the Maoists took part in Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo march.

Speaking at a press conference here along with his deputy Eknath Shinde at the end of the one-week-long winter session of the state legislature, he also said his government would find out illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in Mumbai and deport them.

As to the portfolio allocation of his new cabinet, he said it could happen later in the evening or on Sunday. Fadnavis reiterated his allegation, made during the session, that urban Naxal outfits, acting as frontal organisations of the Maoists, participated in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra.

''I am not saying this, but the reports of the Congress-led state and central governments prior to 2014 said so,'' he said. Action was taken against some of these organisations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, he noted.

To a question about the Public Security Bill, aimed at `curbing the urban Naxal menace,' Fadnavis said it was sent to a joint select committee comprising 21 members from both Houses for scrutiny. The decision was taken even without the Opposition making such a demand so that nobody should allege that it contains provisions to suppress legitimate dissent, he said.

The committee will be headed by the BJP leader and minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, he added. To a question about Somnath Suryavanshi who died in police custody after being arrested following the violent protests in Parbhani city over vandalising of a replica of the Constitution, Fadnavis said Suryavanshi was asked by the magistrate when he was produced in the court whether the police had tortured him.

He replied in the negative, the chief minister pointed out. Even the CCTV footage did not disclose signs of torture while a detailed medical report said he was suffering from a respiratory ailment and there were old injury marks on his body, Fadnavis added.

As to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's absence at the press conference, he said the NCP president was visiting, "after taking permission", Beed and Parbhani to meet the kin of the victims of recent incidents of violence in the two central Maharashtra districts.

While Parbhani witnessed violence over the vandalising of a Constitution replica, a village sarpanch was brutally murdered in Beed district and the issue came up during the session with the Opposition claiming that the mastermind of the crime was present in Nagpur but not being arrested.

Speaking before Fadnavis, deputy CM Shinde said the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government was the same team playing a new match.

It was the continuation of the previous government (which he headed), he said, adding that all existing schemes will continue and development works undertaken in the last two and a half years will be expedited. Criminals in any case, whoever they may be close to, will not be spared, the deputy CM assured.

Opposition parties resorted to drama by protesting on the staircase of the Vidhan Bhavan (legislature complex) instead of raising issues that concerned people, Shinde said. Without naming Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Shinde took swipes at his former boss' presence during the session.

''When someone resigned as CM, he had also announced that he would quit as MLC (Member of Legislative Council), but did not. He came like a tourist, to save his membership of the House."