Overview
- Legislative Council deputy chairperson Neelam Gorhe ordered Satara SP Tushar Doshi’s suspension during a special sitting Monday, and Council chair Ram Shinde then kept the directive in abeyance and reserved a ruling on the presiding officer’s powers.
- Ministers Shambhuraj Desai of Shiv Sena and Makarand Patil of NCP said police in Satara manhandled them and blocked votes during Friday’s zilla parishad president election, and two NCP councillors under arrest missed the ballot.
- BJP’s Priya Shinde won the Satara Zilla Parishad presidency despite the Sena–NCP numbers, with rivals alleging cross-voting and police action changed the result of the 65-member rural body.
- Devendra Fadnavis said the legislature cannot step into the executive’s role on suspensions and announced a probe, and leaders ordered preservation of CCTV footage and other records tied to the polling-day clashes.
- Eknath Shinde called the episode a “murder of democracy,” Shiv Sena MLAs protested at the legislature, and the dispute is testing the Mahayuti alliance as partners weigh discipline over cross-votes and the inquiry’s outcome.