The tension within the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance is likely to escalate further as the BJP today sought MNS’s support for the biennial elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council, slated for March 20.

Senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari’s recent meeting with MNS president Raj Thackeray had created a stir in the political circles, with Shiv Sena registering a strong protest.

Today, state BJP leader Vinod Tawde and Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar met Raj at his residence in Dadar in central Mumbai.

Tawde said, “We met the MNS president to seek his party’s support for the Legislative Council elections. Our two candidates need 58 votes to win, but we are falling short of 12 votes. We have requested him to support BJP.”

The tenure of Tawde, an MLC and the Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, and that of his senior colleague Pandurang Phundkar is ending on April 24. Tawde has expressed his interest in contesting the Assembly elections this time.

“Most likely we will retain the same candidates (Tawde and Phundkar) for the council election. A formal decision in this regard will be taken soon,” a BJP source said.

Mumbai district collector Shaila A said that a single-window clearance system will be put in place so that political parties can obtain various campaigning-related permissions quickly.

“Parties have to go to the municipal corporation, police and various other agencies to get permissions for rallies and election campaign. The single window system will be activated in week’s time Assembly-segment wise,” she said.

Shaila said the Mumbai collectorate, which comprises parliamentary constituencies of Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central, has completed its preparations for the polls.

Mumbai South is currently represented by union minister Milind Deora while Mumbai South central is represented by Eknath Gaikwad (both Congress).

There are 2,545 polling booths in the district. Shaila said 1.04 lakh new voters have been added, but the total voter population of the district has come down from 27 lakh in 2009 to 23,09,494, as of January 31, 2014.

There are 12,84,130 male voters and 10,25,331 female voters, apart from 33 persons from the trans-gender community.

“There have been 6,54,356 deletions from the voter rolls,” Shaila said. Those who have not registered as voters yet can do so till March 25.

A helpline for receiving complaints regarding code of conduct violations will be activated next week. On March 9, voters can verify their names and details in the voter roll with the help of block liaison officer at the polling stations.

The Bombay High Court allowed Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) to amend the Rs. 100 crore defamation suit filed by it against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which alleged that the company was overcharging consumers in collusion with Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.

RInfra, a power distribution company, said it wanted to carry out amendments as it had collected some material which would strengthen its case against AAP.

In another development, senior counsel Aspi Chinoy appeared for three representatives of AAP, namely, Anjali Damania, Convenor, Maharashtra AAP, Preeti Sharma Menon, State Secretary, and Satish Jain, member, State AAP.

The trio had allegedly addressed a press conference recently making allegations against RInfra. Justice S J Kathawala had earlier this week asked them to appear before him today as they had not come to the court on last occasion.

Arguing for RInfra, senior lawyers Venkatesh Dhond and Birendra Saraf urged the court to allow them to carry out amendments as they had got additional material which would prima facie justify their case for defamation.

The court asked them to submit a draft of amendments on March 10 and said it would then ask AAP to file a reply. The case was adjourned to two weeks.

RInfra has taken out a notice of motion praying that the defendants be restrained from repeating the allegations of the Anil Ambani-led firm being involved in a “power scam”.

The plaintiffs alleged the AAP office-bearers had made baseless and false allegations at a press conference here last month to mislead the people, thereby defaming the company.

At the conference, AAP had accused RInfra and Tata Power of misrepresenting taxes and putting a burden of Rs. 434 crore on consumers in Mumbai over the last three years.

“Misrepresentation of taxes has surfaced in which both RInfra and Tata Power are involved, causing a burden of Rs. 434 crore on Mumbaikars in the past three years,” Damania had said at the February 27 meet.

RInfra and Tata Power had strongly denied the charge the same day itself.

The preliminary inquiry report on the INS Sindhuratna tragedy has stated that a ‘human error’ led to the fire on the submarine, say sources. Sources say the probe mentions a deviation from standard operating procedure.

The report had revealed that fire in some cables led to the smoke in the third compartment. Earlier it was said that the smoke was caused by faulty batteries.

Two sailors lost their lives and seven others were injured after inhaling toxic smoke on board the submarine. The Navy said Lieutenant Commander Kapish Muwal and Lieutenant Manoranjan Kumar were trapped in the third compartment after smoke filled the room.

The Opposition BJP had slammed the Centre for neglecting the Navy and not taking steps to upgrade it despite a Navy report warning of the depleting submarine fleet. Most of India’s submarines are over 20-years-old. INS Sindhuratna was 26-years-old.

Chandrabhan Sanap allegedly raped the Hyderabad-based techie girl – she was found murdered in January – police said today as they charged the arrested accused on three more counts.

Chandrabhan Sanap, a history-sheeter who once worked as a porter at Kurla station from where the 23-year-old techie went missing after arriving by train from Andhra Pradesh on early hours of January 5, was arrested four days ago for the murder.

“Sanap has now been charged with rape, robbery (he escaped with her baggage) and wrongful restraint. On the day of his arrest, Sanap was booked for murder and causing disappearance of evidence,” a Crime Branch officer said.

On the day of Sanap’s arrest, police had parried questions about sexual assault on the woman, a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

By slapping the rape charge, police have made it clear the victim was sexually assaulted.

The techie’s decomposed body was found on January 16 off the Eastern Express Highway in suburban Bhandup, where she was allegedly taken by Sanap on a bike, which belonged to his friend Nandkishore Sahu.

Police zeroed in on Sanap after he was spotted with the software engineer in a CCTV footage at Kurla station.

The victim was employed as an assistant system engineer with IT major TCS in suburban Goregaon.

Meanwhile, investigators, who are probing whether Sahu had played any active role in the incident, said he would be made a witness.

“Sahu will be our star witness. We have also recovered the bike used in the crime,” said an officer.

Government-run general insurer New India Assurance launched a special health insurance scheme for families with girl children.

The scheme, ‘New India Asha Kiran’, has been launched on the eve of International Women’s Day.

“We have launched this product, specially designed for families with only girl children, on the occasion of International Women’s Day. This product is reasonably priced as discounts are offered for insuring girl children,” Chairman and Managing Director of New India Assurance G Srinivasan told reporters here.

“We hope this product receives sound response from consumers,” he added.

As per the company, this floater policy gives 50 per cent discount for the girl children. In case of accident to parents, the sum insured will be placed as fixed deposit in the name of the girl children.

“Though we don’t have any concrete estimate of how many families are there with only girl children, we think around 20-30 per cent families may come under this segment,” Srinivasan said.

The recently piloted product for domestic workers would soon be available for retail customers, he said.

The country’s largest general insurer would come up with more innovative products in the coming months. “We will soon come up with such innovative products,” Srinivasan said.

The state-run insurer posted a 36 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 701 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 from Rs 517 crore in the same period last year.

Expressing concern about the lack of basic amenities including toilets and drinking water at the courts in the state, the Bombay High Court directed Maharashtra government to take appropriate steps.

The division bench of Justices A S Oka and Amjad Sayyed was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Litigants Association of Maharashtra, complaining about lack of toilets, drinking water facilities and seating space outside the courtrooms for the litigants.

“The petition has raised important issues. It is the elementary duty of the state government to provide basic amenities like toilets. It goes without saying that facility for clean and drinking water will also have to be provided along with seating space for litigants and witnesses,” the High Court said.

The court noted that in several courts, the maintenance and cleaning of toilets was outsourced, but the contracts were not renewed after they expired.

“The state government will have to formulate a scheme to see to it that such facilities are available at all the courts. We direct the government to take appropriate decision and file an affidavit on April 25,” the judges said.