The Election Commission on Tuesday deliberated on holding the assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir before or after Dussera.
Thackeray would be taking over as chief minister more than a month after results of the Maharashtra Assembly elections were declared on October 24.
After Uddhav Thackeray hit out at All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, his party Shiv Sena on Tuesday stepped up attack on the Hyderabad-based outfit, accusing it of poisoning the minds of minority community and demanded that Maharashtra government take strict action against it.
Polling for the 288-seat Assembly is being held in a single-phase on Wednesday.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Monday stepped in to try and salvage the alliance with the Shiv Sena for Maharashtra assembly elections as the party scaled down on its demand for 135 seats, saying it is prepared for five less and even accept "the worst possible seats".
Addressing BJP's campaign rallies for the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly elections at Pune, Satara and Parli, Modi also said that despite a lot of talk in the last 70 years, it was only his government which dared abrogate Article 370.
The poll of polls brought out by the NDA gave the BJP and the Congress 66 and 14 seats respectively in Haryana, and 211 and 64 for the saffron alliance and the Congress-NCP in Maharashtra.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led party was told that the MNS and the NCP are not politically untouchables for the BJP
The BJP will contest 25 seats and Shiv Sena 23 of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The two parties will contest equal number of seats, along with their other allies, in elections for the 288-member state assembly, due this year.
Defending the live telecast by Doordarshan of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's address on Dussehra, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar on Sunday said the government wants to instill professionalism.
A day after ending its 25-year-old alliance with Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday ruled out a post-poll tie-up with the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party after the October 15 Maharashtra assembly elections.
People are unhappy with the performance of Narendra Modi government at the Centre during its first 100 days as it has failed to keep its promises on rising prices and inflation, the Nationalist Congress Party said on Saturday.
After being checkmated by the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Janata Dal-United-Congress alliance in the Bihar bypoll, Bharatiya Janata Party ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday said that the 'Mahayuti' needs to pull up its socks and refrain from gloating over the 'Modi wave' to fight the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.
Putting up a brave face, former Member of Parliament and suspended Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi said on Saturday that he is not yet retired from politics and will become active at an appropriate time. He also said that it is too early to evaluate the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
"We are going to contest assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh," All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said.
After five decades of existence, the Shiv Sena's support base seems to be shifting towards the rural electorate but there it has to contend with the network of Sharad Pawar and the BJP.
'Put the assets of PMC Bank and the personal assets of the HDIL promoters and head of PMC Bank in an escrow account and ring-fence it from the ad hoc action of the revenue departments and creditors,' recommends Debashis Basu.
BJP ally says common man will respond appropriately if promises made are not fulfilled.
There are limitations to milking national security, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
The richest and poorest candidates who contested the Maharashtra assembly elections were defeated.
Putting up a brave face after its alliance in Maharashtra fell apart, the Congress on Friday targeted the Nationalist Congress Party alleging that it was trying to "get close" to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was quick to rule out any truck with Sharad Pawar's party.
While the term of 288-member Maharashtra assembly ends on November 9, that of the 90-member Haryana assembly expires on November 2.
Firing yet another salvo at the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena on Monday slammed its ally over the issue of supporting Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi saying backing him would be a "sin" as it would be an endorsement of "black era in politics".
'He failed to foresee that the campaign of hatred need not be continuous; a sporadic, scattered campaign is enough.' 'What was important is to keep the pot boiling, not let it overflow like happened during the masjid-mandir days,' notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The vote share of Bharatiya Janata party in Maharashtra assembly elections doubled compared to that in 2009 to help catapult its tally from 46 to 122 seats in a five-cornered contest and it was also marginally higher than it got in the May Lok Sabha polls.
Check out the Bollywood turnout on voting day!
'The BJP will be wiped out from all over India.'
Nationalist Congress president Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and Pawar senior's daughter and Lok Sabha MP from Baramati Supriya Sule were nowhere to be seen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stormed into their family stronghold of Western Maharashtra's Baramati on Thursday
'Modi underestimated Pawar.'
Seeking to woo the fishermen community in Maharashtra's tribal region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said those seeking an account of his work in 60 days never bothered about fishermen rotting in Pakistani jails and it was his government which took up the matter.
In a veiled attacked on Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has said that he had told Rajnath Singh to continue as the BJP president till the Maharashtra assembly elections and had he been at the helm of affairs the alliance would not have broken.
In 2014, young Muslims became Owaisi fans. But five years of BJP rule and a weakening Opposition have drawn older Muslims too towards the AIMIM chief. Not enough, though.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
Senior NCP leader R R Patil or 'Aaba', was a quintessential grass root politician
Political observers feel that the outcome of the elections weighs in favour of the BJP which had won a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, held earlier this year.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Sunday declared that he was not going to be the party's chief ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly election slated for September-October.
Making a scathing attack on the Nationalist Congress Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that if the Sharad Pawar-led party is voted to power again, it will further increase its "corrupt activities."
Buoyed by the results of exit polls that gave the Bharatiya Janata Party an edge in the Maharashtra assembly elections, state unit chief Devendra Fadnavis said the party would form the government in the state. In an interview, Fadnavis, a leading contender for the chief minister's post, spoke on the party's performance.
Shiv Sena's attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party shows that the party has 'lost the battle', says senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Bhim denotes Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar, while Mim denotes the letter 'M' in the Urdu alphabet; the party used the slogan effectively in the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections