Morning Pulse: Shetti takes the cane fight to mill gates as ₹5,000 drought aid draws fire

Overnight, Maharashtra's pressure points moved closer to the state government's own door. Raju Shetti lifted his blockade on the Karnataka border and said the sugarcane fight would move to the gates of the state's mills from this morning. The opposition, silent on Wednesday afternoon, turned on the ₹5,000 drought advance by evening. And Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tried to talk down the rift over the Pune teachers' seat without saying whom his ally is backing.

First, a correction to last night's picture. Our Evening Pulse said the Kognoli blockade was holding. In fact, Pudhari reported, farmers left the toll plazas at about 6:30 pm on Wednesday after 31 hours, and traffic resumed soon after. Shetti, who leads the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, said he was suspending the protest so ordinary people would not suffer. He warned he would return to Kognoli if the government did not take a proper decision on farmers' demands, Pudhari said.

The new target is the mills. Sarkarnama reported Shetti as saying that factories which start crushing without declaring ₹5,500 a tonne for cane will be shut, and that their sugar will be handed out to the poor. One team led by Shetti will work through Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Solapur districts. Another is walking towards Hubballi, where, Sarkarnama said, reports point to a protest at Union Minister Pralhad Joshi's house on 29 October. TV9 Marathi reported that Shetti planned to reach the Krishna cooperative sugar factory at Rethare in Sangli district at 10 am today and said three factories would be shut on the first day; Pudhari also reported the Rethare march. We found no response yet from mill managements or the state government.

The switch came hours after the Centre set up the committee it had promised, closing a loop we flagged last night. Business Today reported that former NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand will chair a panel of officials from the agriculture, food and consumer affairs departments. It will look at cane payments, the minimum selling price of sugar, how mills test sugar recovery, and how they weigh cane. It has no deadline beyond reporting "as early as possible", and no price change has been announced. Pudhari reported the panel too. Leaving the highway anyway suggests farmers do not expect quick answers from it.

On drought relief, the silence we noted last night has ended. Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said the ₹5,000 advance was like rubbing salt into farmers' wounds and demanded at least ₹50,000 per farmer, TV9 Marathi reported. In a post on X quoted by Dainik Prabhat, he said the government claims it has no money for real relief while planning about ₹1.25 lakh crore of spending on the Kumbh Mela and the Shaktipeeth highway. That figure is his claim and we have not checked it. Neither outlet carried a government reply, and we found none by this morning.

In Pune on Wednesday, Fadnavis was asked about reports that Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was upset. Shinde is not upset, he told reporters, it is the media that is upset, TV9 Marathi and Prahaar reported, and he called the talk baseless rumour. Prahaar said he also claimed that Shiv Sena and NCP workers, MLAs and ministers would work for the BJP's candidates in both the Pune teachers' and graduates' seats, whatever personal ties exist, and that the Mahayuti would win all five Council seats. Neither report has him saying directly whether Shinde's Sena is backing independent Sachin Sanap against the BJP's Kaustubh Gawde. We found no on-record word from the Sena overnight. Polling is on 23 October.

The drought also reaches Pune's taps today. The Pune Municipal Corporation will stop supply across the city every Thursday from today, The Better India reported, citing Additional Municipal Commissioner Pavneet Kaur, and Navarashtra's morning bulletin carried the same. Builders may not use municipal water for construction, and vehicle-washing centres are to close. The aim is to stretch stored water to 31 August 2027. Pimpri-Chinchwad has not yet fixed its own cut. The state-ordered 10% cut begins on Friday, and Thane's 24-hour shutdown starts at midnight tonight.

Two threads did not move overnight: we found no new Supreme Court date in the Shiv Sena name-and-symbol case, and no update on the police inquiry into the threat letter sent to NCP legislator Idris Nayakwadi.