Maharashtra Home Minister Patil: NCP to discuss alliance in Nagpur for local body polls

Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil on Sunday said that his party Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will hold discussions on forming an alliance with other parties in Nagpur for upcoming local body polls.

Speaking to media persons here, Patil said, "We have started preparations for local body elections in the state. We will hold discussions within our party on alliance with other parties (for Nagpur)."

Elections to 14 civic bodies in Maharashtra, including the Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations is likely to be held in April.

Speaking on the phone tapping case, the Home Minister said a probe is underway.

Last month, Pune Police registered an FIR against former city Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla in the case. The case was registered under section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act.

In July last year, the Maharashtra government had constituted a three-member high-level committee headed by the then Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey to investigate the phone tapping cases for the period of five years from 2015 to 2019.

The high-level committee was tasked to find out whether the phones of various political leaders were tapped illegally for undesirable political or any other purpose. The committee was asked to submit a detailed report of the probe and fix the responsibility of the person (if any) responsible for such cases.

There were allegations of phone tapping levelled by several MLAs including Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole. The controversy over phone tapping had erupted in 2020 after audio clips purportedly having a telephonic conversation between Union minister Gajendra Singh and Congress leaders surfaced.

(ANI)

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