The central government acted 111 years after John Nicholson’s statue, its foundation, gardens, paths, and surrounding wall were declared a ‘national monument’

Eknath Shinde, who bowed out of the race for Maharashtra’s Chief Minister post last week and has been keeping a low profile since, will join the Devendra Fadnavis government as his Deputy, sources have told NDTV. Mr Fadnavis will take oath tomorrow in Mumbai, preparations for which are in progress. There is speculation that two Deputies will take oath alongside – Ajit Pawar has already given a teaser, saying he would also take oath tomorrow.

Mr Fadnavis, who met Governor CP Radhakrishnan today and staked claim to form government, had dropped hints that he has persuaded Mr Shinde to join the government at a meeting last evening.

“Yesterday I requested Eknath Shinde to remain in the cabinet… which I hope he would… The Chief Minister post is just a technical agreement between us… we have been together to take decisions and will continue to do so,” he said, expressing “special thanks” to his predecessor in the top post.  

“The Chief Minister post is just a technical agreement between us… we have been together to take decisions and will continue to do so,” he had added airbrushing difference over a matter that created a two-week logjam in the announcement for the top post, oath and subsequent government formation.  

Mr Shinde had reciprocated, saying, “Two-and-a-half year ago, Fadnavis recommended my name to become the Chief Minister. This time, we recommend his name to become the Chief Minister”. 

After declaring that he would not be an “obstacle” to the BJP decision on the top post, Mr Shinde had gone off to his village in Satara. His aides, meanwhile, had kept up the pressure on the government, reiterating their demand for the top post for their boss. 

Yesterday, Mr Shinde was admitted in a hospital for what his team called a “routine check-up”. Shortly after his return, Mr Fadnavis had visited him in “Varsha” – the official residence of the Chief Minister.  

The meeting paved the way for the BJP legislators’ meet today where Mr Fadnavis was named as chief and ended the two-week suspense and drawn jeers from the Opposition.

Low-cost airline IndiGo on Wednesday refuted findings of a report which claimed that IndiGo has been ranked among the world’s worst airlines this year.

The ‘AirHelp Score report 2024’ placed the domestic carrier near the bottom at 103rd place out of 109 analysed. The report also ranked Air India at 61st and AirAsia at 94th.

In a statement, IndiGo said that India’s aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), publishes data on airline punctuality and customer complaints monthly.

“IndiGo has consistently scored high on punctuality and has the lowest customer complaint ratio for an airline of its size and scale of operations,” said the airline.

It further stated that the data published in the survey by AirHelp, an EU claim processing agency, “does not report the sample size from India, and neither takes into account the methodology or compensation guidelines used by the global aviation industry – casting a doubt on its credibility”.

“As India’s most preferred airline, IndiGo refutes the findings of this survey and reiterates its promise of on-time, affordable, courteous and hassle-free travel experience for its customers,” said the aviation major.

According to the DGCA data, during the nine-month period (January-September), budget carrier IndiGo carried more than 7.25 crore passengers, clocking a market share of 61.3 per cent, followed by Tata Group-run Air India flying over 1.64 crore passengers with 13.9 per cent share.

With its fleet of more than 380 aircraft, the airline is operating around 2,100 daily flights and connecting over 85 domestic destinations and more than 30 international destinations.

Brussels Airlines, Qatar Airways and United Airlines occupy the top three spots in the AirHelp report.

The annual report by AirHelp, a company specialising in passenger compensation claims, covered data from January to October. It used factors such as global customer claims, on-time performance, and feedback from travellers across 54 countries – assessing aspects like food quality, seating comfort, and crew service – to rank the airlines.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)