He also sought framing of a law to identify Kunbis as Marathas, and warned of fielding candidates from all 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra in the upcoming state polls if his demands were not approved.
He expressed confidence that the Maha Vikas Aghadi of the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, NCP (Sharad Pawar group) and Congress will come to power in Maharashtra after the 2024 elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday named 72 more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Anurag Singh Thakur, and former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Basavaraj Bommai.
To keep their MLAs together, political parties are organising dinner meetings and arranging hotel stays for them ahead of the council elections, which are taking place just three months ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party replaced at least 25 sitting MPs with new faces as the party released its second list of 72 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Wednesday.
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20. Counting of votes will be held on June 4.
150 BJP elected local representatives in Beed resign in protest against Pritam Munde's exclusion from the Union ministry.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
The Parli assembly seat in Beed district will again see his daughter Pankaja Munde and nephew Dhananjay Munde lock horns for supremacy.
Munde alleged "sensationalisation" of news, with her party colleague and state minister Sudhir Mungantiwar saying that her statement was taken out of context.
Senior state BJP leaders Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde don't find a place in the list, which instead has lesser-known faces like Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ajit Gopchhade.
Fadnavis and his entourage, which included several senior BJP leaders, moved on without reacting to the jeers.
Former Maharashtra minister and Bharatiya Janata Party ally Sadabhau Khot on Thursday filed his nomination for the upcoming polls to 10 seats of the state legislative council as a BJP-backed independent candidate.
The appointments holds significance as a large number of senior leaders, who had no organisational post currently, have now been given new responsibilities.
Sena further said that accusations against the ministers shows that "politics is being played to put a halt to their ambitions".
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday claimed that Nationalist Congress Party's Ajit Pawar was "blackmailed" into joining hands with the BJP to form government in Maharashtra.
Under flak, Munde said the video clip, in which he was purportedly heard making the comments against Pankaja, was edited and fake. He claimed that his remarks were "distorted" to project him as a "villain" by his rivals to win elections.
He added that it was 'ironical' for the Congress to talk about corruption when the party itself has been accused of being a part of several scams in the past.
Bharatiya Janata Party-backed independent candidate Sadabhau Khot and Nationalist Congress Party's Shivajrao Gajre on Monday withdrew their nominations for the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, leaving 11 contestants in the fray for 10 seats as the state was set to witness another bitter fight between the BJP and the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after the last week's cliffhanger in the Rajya Sabha polls.
In a telephonic interview with rediff.com, Dhananjay Munde squarely blames his uncle for sidelining him in the state BJP for the benefit of Munde's daughter Pankaja Munde-Palwe, who is currently a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from Parli, the BJP leader's home town.
Sharad Pawar-Ajit Pawar, Bal Thackeray-Raj Thackeray, Gopinath Munde-Dhananjay Munde. Troubled uncle-nephew relationships have rocked the boat of more than one party trying to steer its way through Maharashtra's troubled political waters with the crisis in the Nationalist Congress Party only the latest in the series.
Thackeray also said that corruption allegations against Pankaja Munde were "grave" but did not comment further on the issue.
Stepping up its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday slammed Prime Minister Narendra for keeping silent in the controversy involving Lalit Modi and other scandals and threatened to launch a nationwide agitation if the tainted ministers and leaders are not sacked.
'The cousins do not have a good rapport with each other in politics, though they may be having a good rapport with each other in family life.'
When the Maharashtra government first announced to send a 'water train' to drought-hit Latur in 2015, one would have remotely imagined that it would reap a major political success for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Congress pocket borough.
Do you agree with NCP leader Sharad Pawar? Cast your vote to let us know.
He also said that the BJP and Shiv Sena will go by what was "pre-decided" between them on sharing of power.
A 10-member Bharatiya Janata Party ministry led by Devendra Fadnavis was sworn-in at Wankhede on Friday.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his cabinet colleagues Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde, Union minister Nitin Gadkari, state minister Sadabhau Khot, former Union Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi were prominent among those who installed Ganpati idols at their homes.
Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Wednesday said the Supreme Court order on the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) quota was a setback to the state government and it should do everything it can to save the community's reservation.
There has been a lot of promise from New Delhi to build toilets for women Back in rural Maharashtra, Sangita Awhale has taken the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative forward.
She came under the cloud of allegation of clearing contract worth Rs 206 crore for purchase of a host of items under the Integrated Child Development Scheme.
Legislators, bureaucrats feel an impact, with works relating to their constituencies stuck at various levels.
A list of some prominent political families of the BJP.
In her three recent tweets posted on November 28, she congratulated Maharashtra's new Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray but not the government formed by the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress.
The Samajwadi Party leader said the director's choice to have his twins via surrogacy was a joke on poor people.
The BJP has been keeping Khadse at the arm's length since 2016 when he was made to resign as a minister in the then BJP government headed by Devendra Fadnavis over allegations of corruption.
Cool red carpet fashion, right here.
The ashes of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former union minister Gopinath Munde were on Sunday immersed in the Godavari river.
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