Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh, who had signed on the mercy petition for Yakub Menon, became a minister in Uddhav Thackerey-led Maharashtra government on Monday. Soon after his name came up for the ministerial berth, a petition dated 28 July 2015, has gone viral on social media. In the petition, Aslam Shaikh along with other legislators and MLCs had appealed to the then President Pranab Mukherjee “for clemency towards the conviction of Yakub Menon, death sentence”.
Among the other prominent leaders who signed the petition were Manishankar Aiyer, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri, actor Naseeruddin Shah, Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, activist Tushar Gandhi, and lawyer Vrinda Grover. The petition claimed that approximately 29 people signed or supported mercy petition against the execution of the death sentence of Yakub Menon. However, the petition bears the signatures of only MLAs and MLCs.
One of the legislators who signed the petition was Aslam Shaikh, who is Congress MLA from Malad West. He is among the 36 Congress leaders who took oath as minister earlier today. In the recently-held assembly polls, Shaikh defeated BJP’s Thakur Ramesh Singh by over 10000 votes. The Congress, which was in a pre-poll alliance with NCP, had contested the elections against Shiv Sena and BJP.
However, Sena and BJP could not form the government over the differences on power-sharing. Sena decided to walk out of the pre-poll alliance and form the government with Congress and NCP. Today, chief minister Udhhav Thackerey carried out the first expansion of his cabinet. NCP leader Ajit Pawar returned as Deputy CM and Aditya Thackerey took oath as minister, first from the Thackerey family to become a minister.
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Source: Financial Express
