The development comes amid a close aide of Pawar saying 36 out of 53 NCP MLAs have extended support to the new deputy CM and the numbers could go to 46 in a few days time.
The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Bal Thackeray and Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi on Monday announced an alliance, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray.
Eknath Shinde has said Devendra Fadnavis gave up the opportunity to install a Bharatiya Janata Party mayor in Mumbai after the 2017 civic polls for the sake of the Shiv Sena at his request.
Raut said his party has decided to support independent candidate Shubhangi Patil from the Nashik division graduates constituency after she sought backing from former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Earlier this week, the Shiv Sena-UBT approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Assembly Speaker to hear the disqualification petitions expeditiously.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday failed to retain Kasba Peth assembly seat, its stronghold in Maharashtra's Pune district, as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane in the bypoll.
'When I felt that the party is drifting away from Hindutva, I tried to speak to Uddhavji. But nobody was ready to listen.'
Thackeray said let there be elections to make it clear whether people support him on the rebel faction.
The last time when more than 200 MLAs were part of the state government was in 1972, but at that time all the 222 legislators belonged to Congress. Also, the strength of the House was 270 at that time, a former state legislature official said on Monday citing data.
Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde on Tuesday tore into the Uddhav Thackeray faction for 'abandoning' Hindutva and Bal Thackeray's ideology and even recited the Hanuman Chalisa in Lok Sabha as his party opposed the no-confidence motion against the Modi government.
The EC had, on February 17, recognised the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and had allotted it the 'bow and arrow' symbol, prompting Shah to claim Thackeray would now know on which side the truth was.
Speaking to reporters after attending the MVA meeting at NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence 'Silver Oak' in Mumbai, Patil said the MVA -- comprising the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, the NCP, and the Congress -- will work out a seat-sharing formula ahead of the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra assembly elections, due in the second half of the next year.
"There will be one in Delhi and the other in the state," Sule, the daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, said without elaborating.
Shinde's appeal came after Sena workers loyal to party president and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray staged protests against the rebel MLAs led by him.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday claimed Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has failed to create a successor who could take his party forward.
NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday received a grand welcome in Baramati, which is his assembly constituency and also the pocket borough of party chief Sharad Pawar, on his first visit after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra and parting ways with his uncle.
NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase told reporters that the party workers do not want Pawar to step down.
"The Sena leadership fell short in quelling this outburst of discontent," the veteran politician wrote.
'We were discussing government formation with Sharad Pawar. We had even finalised portfolio distribution and guardian ministers' responsibilities'
In an interview to NDTV, Pawar came out in support of the Adani Group and criticised the narrative around Hindenburg Research's report on the conglomerate.
The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on Monday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's attack on freedom fighter V D Savarkar will lead to ebbing of sympathy he has gained due to his disqualification as Lok Sabha MP.
While the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will organise its event at NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai, the Shiv Sena-UBT will hold its event in Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.
Wadettiwar said he was not opposed to the idea of increasing the overall quota ceiling to accommodate the Maratha community.
Maharashtra legislative assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Monday said that after the Supreme Court's May 11 verdict, he will have to first recognise in the House which faction of the Shiv Sena is the political party before going ahead with any other decision.
'The name Shiv Sena was given by my grandfather, how can the EC change the name?'
The following are the highlights of the Supreme Court verdict in which a five-judge Constitution bench unanimously held on Thursday that it cannot restore the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray as the former chief minister resigned without facing a floor test in June last year.
"If Ajit Pawar was unhappy in the Congress-NCP government, he should have left that time itself," Patole told reporters.
According to the sources, it was decided that the MVA will hold revenue division-wise rallies where leaders of all the three Opposition outfits will participate.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly on Friday passed a bill empowering local tree authorities to allow the felling of all types of trees without referring matters to the State Tree Authority.
The alliance would announce a coordination committee, which could be of 11 members from principal opposition parties.
Raut also refuted the speculation of NCP leader Ajit Pawar joining the BJP.
Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar played down the buzz saying that he is not able to attend the NCP meeting as he has to remain present for some other programmes happening at the same time.
Amid strains in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi alliance over Rahul Gandhi's strident criticism of V D Savarkar, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has stepped in to play the peacemaker by conveying the Shiv Sena's concerns on the issue to the Congress leadership.
Ajit Pawar was earlier sworn in as deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde government, while eight others, including Walse Patil and Bhujbal, were made ministers, the developments coming after a vertical split in the NCP.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Chandrakant Khaire on Monday said the Congress cannot stake claim to the Aurangabad constituency in Maharashtra for the next Lok Sabha polls as Shiv Sena (undivided) had won this seat multiple times in the past.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said he had been suppressed for a long time and the rebellion led by him was a fallout of the unfair treatment meted out to him, an apparent reference to his old association with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership.
The editorial in Saamana said the "Wagner group" has shown dictatorship can be challenged.
Three Congress workers have approached a special PMLA court in Mumbai seeking a blanket anticipatory bail for all the MPs and MLAs of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra, claiming that the Centre is misusing agencies to target the MVA constituents with an "ulterior motive" to suppress the state government.
At present, the BJP has 106 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly and Shinde is leading 39 rebel Shiv Sena legislators and some Independents.
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