Security bolstered for CM Shinde’s MLAs after attack

Mumbai: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s two-member cabinet on Wednesday announced that the Y-category security accorded to the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs will be upgraded following the attack on the vehicle of ex-minister Uday Samant in Pune on Tuesday night. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier accorded the MLAs and their residences Ycategory security while they were ensconced in Assam in the wake of expected recriminatory attacks from Uddhav Thackeray loyalists.
 

y loyalists. “The security accorded to MLAs and their families by Amit Shah in the wake of potential threats earlier is what kept the Pune attack from turning fatal. Now, the state has directed the Director General of police to further bolster the security detail of the MLAs. This does not necessarily mean a technical upgrade from Y security to Y+ security but a physical upgrade in the number of Central Industrial Security Force personnel,” a person close to the development told First India

“The police will investigate and take due action against the culprits. If someone is found to have instigated the attack due action will be taken against them as well,” CM Shinde told the media. Shinde’s statement comes in the wake of the public declaration made by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) Pune spokesperson Babasaheb Thorat exhorting Sainiks to attack the vehicles of the rebel Sena MLAs a day earlier. Thorat had said during a public meeting that any Sainik who broke the vehicle of rebel Sena MLAs would be personally felicitated at the Thackeray residence of Matoshree at the hands of the Sena chief, as reported by First India on Wednesday. When asked about the incident coming in the wake of Thackeray’s personal exhortation to Sainiks to maintain restraint and not take law into their hands, Thorat was nonchalant. “The Sena chief would obviously not want any of his party workers to get caught up in any boundaries were redrawn in such a manner by the ruling Shiv Sena that Muslim votes would hold considerable sway over at least 52 seats across 24 wards. Welcoming the cabinet decision, Congress group leader in the BMC Ravi Raja told First India, “The delimitation is based on the census and population density. Because of migration from Mumbai City to the suburbs, the population in Mumbai city wards has never increased in the past 20 years; it has always decreased. However, the delimitation increased three wards in the city for the first time. That meant a councillor would have to work across three to four administrative wards. How is that possible? We are fine with 2017 the status quo.” The BMC seats were first increased from 170 to 221 after the 1991 census. In 2002, they went up from 221 to 227 wards. In 2017, the number of seats remained at 227.