Morning Pulse: Shinde's Sena eyes a rival to the BJP in Pune council poll as cane blockade enters day two

Maharashtra woke on Wednesday to a ruling alliance arguing with itself and a cane belt arguing with the Centre. Overnight reports say Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena is weighing support for an independent against the BJP's own candidate in a Pune Legislative Council seat. Meanwhile, the farmers' blockade on the Pune-Bengaluru highway has rolled into a second day. Behind both is a drought that reaches city taps on Friday.

The flashpoint is the Pune division teachers' constituency. The Shinde Sena had given its official nomination form to Mangesh Chiwate, who later withdrew, TV9 Marathi and Dainik Prabhat reported. Senior Sena leaders, among them ministers Uday Samant, Shambhuraj Desai and Prakash Abitkar, then met at Shinde's Nandanvan residence in Thane. Both outlets said backing independent candidate Sachin Sanap, a professor who has long raised teachers' issues, was discussed there. Dainik Prabhat stressed that the party has announced no official stand. Zee 24 Taas went further in its morning bulletin, saying the Sena will back Sanap. Until the party says so on record, we treat that as unconfirmed.

The stakes are clear on paper. The BJP has fielded Kaustubh Gawde for the teachers' seat and Smita Jadhav for the graduates' seat, The Free Press Journal reported. It listed the Congress's Jayant Asgaonkar among the 30 teachers' seat candidates and the NCP (SP)'s Harshada Jadhav-Deshmukh in the graduates' race. Polling is on 23 October, with counting on 27 October. A split in the ruling camp's teacher vote would help whichever rival is best placed to gain from it.

The BJP's first response came from Jaykumar Gore, Solapur's guardian minister. A Shinde-aligned teachers' group, the Eknath Swabhimani Shikshak Sanghatana, has called a boycott over Chiwate being dropped. Gore dismissed it, according to TV9 Marathi. He asked whether the 10,000 teachers the group claims to speak for had given anything in writing, and said Mahayuti leaders at the top would decide. Sena leader Ravindra Dhangekar denied reports that Shinde was unhappy with the BJP fielding candidates in both Pune seats, Dainik Prabhat reported.

On the Karnataka border, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana's blockade at the Kognoli toll plaza entered its second day, Lokshahi and Zee 24 Taas reported. Lokshahi said Karnataka's Rajya Raitha Sangha and the Green Brigade have joined. It said traffic was snarled and police were asking motorists to use other routes. The demands have not changed: a minimum selling price of ₹50 a kg for sugar, ₹70 a litre for ethanol made from C-heavy molasses, and a ₹500-a-tonne subsidy on cane crushed. We found no report of fresh talks with the Centre overnight. Every day of blockade adds pressure on New Delhi, and it also costs truckers, commuters and traders on one of the state's busiest freight routes.

The drought will reach city homes on Friday. A cut of at least 10% in drinking water supply, ordered for urban local bodies by the state Water Resources Department, starts on 16 October, Pudhari reported. The same plan reserves water for drinking first, through 31 August 2027. In Satara, municipal officials met on Tuesday evening to plan how to carry out the district administration's 10% cut, with a focus on fixing leaks and stretching supply into summer, Navarashtra reported.

In Mumbai, the Revenue Department has told sub-registrars across the state to stop registering deeds for flats in unauthorised buildings, Navarashtra and Pudhari reported. Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule announced the step on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's instructions. A deed cannot be registered if it shows more area than the sanctioned plan. First sales in projects that need MahaRERA registration must carry that registration or an occupancy certificate and the approved map. Sub-registrars who knowingly break the rules face a departmental inquiry. Both reports named the Mumbai region, Thane, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Haveli, Mulshi and Nagpur as areas where complaints have grown. Navarashtra added that buildings which cannot be regularised may face demolition under the law.

Several threads from last night's Pulse did not move. We found no new Supreme Court date for the Shiv Sena name-and-symbol case, which did not go ahead on Tuesday because a judge was absent. We also found no reply from Shiv Sena (UBT) or the Congress to Shinde's 'black day' remark. We saw no report of an appeal by Gopichand Padalkar against the order that ended his Sangli bank nomination, and no update on an FIR or a cause in Tuesday's Khalapur shed collapse.