SHINDE GOVT SCALES DOWN SECURITY OF OPPN LEADERS

MUMBAI: If political fortunes are to be decided by the level of security then Friday’s rejig was a good indicator. The Eknath Shinde government scaled down the security of several opposition leaders like state Congress chief Nana Patole and state Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Jayant Patil, while Uddhav Thackeray’s personal secretary Milind Narvekar’s security was beefed up.

While former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, both Congress leaders, will continue to get Y category security, the security cover of former ministers in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government including Patil, Balasaheb Thorat, Vijay Wadettiwar, Sunil Kedar, Satej Patil and Nitin Raut was scaled down. They will now have only one armed police constable as they are members of the legislative assembly. Both Patole and Patil had Y+ category security.

The security cover for Varun Sardesai, Uddhav Thackeray’s nephew, was removed. Sardesai, secretary of Yuva Sena (Shiv Sena UBT), had two armed constables. Narvekar has been given Y+ plus category security.