Murder in Metro: Heads not rolling, Pawar nails govt

Sharad Pawar's statement on the murder of former minister Baba Siddique is very sharp and speaks volumes on the collapse of the law and order situation in the state. Pawar says the shooting is regrettable and if the home minister and those in power are going to take the running of the state so lightly, this will sound an alarm bell for the common man. Those in power don't need to declare an investigation; they need to accept responsibility and step down from their positions, he says.
Pawar knows no one will quit and neither will home minister Devendra Fadnavis revamp Mumbai police as the era of resigning from the post on moral grounds ended long ago.
After the firing at Salman Khan's residence, it was expected that law enforcement agencies would enhance the security cover of the people close to him. But, it appears that no such step was taken. In political and film circles, it is well known that Siddique was among the closest friends of Khan, who has been attending all private functions organised by him.
In the words of Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, not only traitors but even their servants have been provided with a categorised security. Siddique had only one security guard, which is provided to most former legislators. Thackeray says earlier, Mumbai had only one police commissioner, but now it has two, including a special commissioner, but that has not helped maintain law and order in the city. Prime facie, it appears that the special branch failed to assess the threat to Siddique's life despite him being closely associated with Khan.
‘Unseen hands'
Ultimately, former BJP leader Harshvardhan Patil has disclosed the role of unseen hands that played a key role in the victory of Supriya Sule, who defeated Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar from Baramati. At a public event in the presence of Sharad Pawar and Sule, Patil said that he was responsible for Sule's victory in the Lok Sabha elections.
In the Indapur assembly segment, Sule polled 1,14,020 votes against 88,069 by Sunetra. Indapur is Harshvardhan's hometown. Barring Khadakwasla, Sule secured more votes than Sunetra in all the assembly segments. Sule polled 7.32 lakh votes against 5.73 lakh by Sunetra.
Harshvardhan was associated with Congress for a long time. He resigned from the party and joined BJP in 2014 with the hope that he would be rehabilitated soon. Then, he observed that after he joined BJP, he was getting sound sleep. A decade later, when he found that there was no scope for him and he was unlikely to be considered for nomination in the assembly elections, he decided to quit BJP and join Sharad Pawar's party. He is likely to be nominated from Indapur.