Under the Eknath Shinde government's flagship 'Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana', eligible women in the state will be given Rs 1,500 per month.
The Devendra Fadnavis-led ministry in Maharashtra has successfully passed a trust vote in the state assembly, securing a commanding majority of 230 seats in the 288-member house. The BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP 'Mahayuti' coalition, with a majority mark of 144, had a comfortable win with the support of smaller parties and independent MLAs. The trust motion was tabled by Shiv Sena MLA Uday Samant and others, and was passed by a voice vote. The 15th legislative assembly began its tenure on December 7, and the floor test was considered a mere formality. Fadnavis was sworn in as the chief minister for the third time on December 5, with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as deputy chief ministers.
Amravati MLA Ravi Rana has claimed Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray head and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will join the Modi government in 15 days after the Lok Sabha election results come out on Tuesday.
Kumar also hinted that the Maharashtra elections could be held after Diwali.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
The development came hours after the couple cancelled their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' in Mumbai.
'Neither did I approach the BJP nor did they ask me to join them. It was a natural choice for both of us to make.' 'It was never for me to ask or for them to give.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the Bombay high court verdict cancelling the caste certificate of Amravati MP and BJP leader Navneet Kaur Rana.
Maharashtra's MP-MLA couple Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana, arrested over the Hanuman Chalisa row, will have to remain in jail at least for a few more days as a special court in Mumbai on Monday said it will give its ruling on their bail plea on May 4.
Rana, who currently represents the Amravati Lok Sabha seat, joined the ruling BJP at the party's state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule's residence in Nagpur along with her supporters late Wednesday night.
The welcome procession impeded traffic at several spots, while an 'aarti' performed by the couple had loudspeakers in use even after 10pm, local police officials said.
The police sought that the couple's bail be cancelled on the ground that they had allegedly violated one of the conditions imposed by the special court while granting them bail last week.
After they were granted bail on Wednesday, the necessary documents had not timely reached the prisons where they were lodged.
The move came after the Lok Sabha Privilege and Ethics Committee asked the Home Ministry to seek a report from the Maharashtra government.
The Ranas had on Friday said that they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside 'Matoshree', the personal residence of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in suburban Bandra at 9 am on Saturday.
The video clip shows the Rana couple sitting on chairs and sipping tea in front of police officials at Khar police station. Bottles of mineral water are also seen on the table in front of them.
The BMC notice to the couple recently arrested over the Hanuman Chalisa row was issued under Section 488 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, according to which, officials can visit any building and ascertain whether any illegal alterations have been undertaken.
"One nation, one law can be understood. But we will never accept one nation, one party plan of the BJP", Thackeray said.
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.
Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Tuesday denied Independent MP Navneet Rana's accusation that she was ill-treated in the police custody after her and her husband's arrest on Saturday.
Raut claimed Navneet Rana received a loan of Rs 80 lakh from Yusuf Lakdawala, who was arrested in a money laundering case.
In the wake of a political row in Maharashtra over the recitation of Hanuman Chalisa, the Shiv Sena on Monday hit out at the BJP and said the Hindutva ideology is a culture and not chaos.
Thackeray and his family members met 80-year-old Chandrabhaga Shinde, who became the face of protests by Shiv Sena workers against Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana a day earlier, at her residence in Parel in the evening.
Sedition, which provides a maximum jail term of life under Section 124A of the IPC for creating "disaffection towards the government", was brought into the penal code in 1890, 57 years before Independence and almost 30 years after the IPC came into being.
Initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition's side, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be "gross injustice" to Indian women.
'We tried to keep him, but there is nothing we can do'
The couple was arrested on April 23 by the Mumbai police following their public declaration of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' in Bandra.
Sources said now the committee may call top Mumbai police officials over the complaint.
The couple had approached the HC seeking that the FIR registered against them by the Khar police in Mumbai on the charge of deterring a police officer from discharging her official duties be quashed.
On Sunday, a Mumbai court remanded the politician couple in 14-day judicial custody, a day after they were arrested by the Mumbai Police on the charge of 'creating enmity between different groups', rejecting the police's demand for their custody, an official said.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey on Tuesday said the police was ready to deal with anybody trying to create disturbance in the city.
In the letter sent on Sunday, the Lok Sabha MP from Amravati has demanded strict action against Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay PandeY.
Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA-husband Ravi on Monday said they will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to raise the issue of their alleged ill-treatment by Maharashtra authorities when the couple was in jail recently.
Addressing BJP's rally in Mumbai, Fadnavis also claimed that he was in Badaun jail for 18 days while doing 'kar seva' for the Ram temple construction purpose.
The police also claimed that the opposition BJP and the political opponents of Thackeray were trying to create an atmosphere to project him as anti-Hindu and not sponsoring the cause of Hinduism, and that in the present regime it was difficult for Hindus to practise their religion freely and thus the feeling of hate would increase against the Muslim religion causing a rift.
NCP leader Fahmida Hasan Khan wants HM Amit Shah's nod to read scriptures of all faith outside PM house.
Member of Parliament Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana have "undoubtedly crossed the line of freedom of speech" guaranteed under the Constitution, but mere expression of derogatory or objectionable words may not be a sufficient ground for invoking the charge of sedition against them, a special court in Mumbai has said.
In an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, the MVA lead party, in a rare move, praised BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis for his 'cleverness and astute poll management.
The counting was scheduled to start at 5 pm Friday, but it could not be taken up as the Bharatiya Janata Party approached the Election Commission alleging violation of rules by three MLAs of the state's ruling alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Breaking his silence on the Hanuman Chalisa row that has seen a lawmaker couple being booked for sedition and the Bharatiya Janata Party raising the Hindutva pitch, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said reciting the Hanuman Chalisa at his home is not a problem but 'dadgiri' won't be tolerated.
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