Though the contest is tough in Baramati, Sule has an edge over her rival as the locals may not break the pattern that she is meant for the Lok Sabha and Ajit Pawar for the state assembly, the political analyst felt.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar was given the finance and planning portfolio on Friday, nearly two weeks after he broke away from the original party and took oath as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has opted not to grant tickets to eight MLAs, followed by Congress which replaced five MLAs.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar might have appointed Praful Patel as working president along with his (Pawar's) daughter Supriya Sule to blunt probable allegations of "dynastic politics", the Shiv Sena (UBT) said on Monday.
With this, the Shiv Sena has become the second major political party to release its list of candidates for the state assembly polls. Its ally BJP released a list of 99 candidates on Sunday.
As many as 35 of 53 Nationalist Congress Party MLAs were present at the party meeting convened by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday, party sources said.
Talking to reporters in Amravati, Sule, a Lok Sabha MP, said Pawar, a senior NCP leader, had requested the Prime Minister's Office to allow him to speak at the event.
Though the name of the district minister is not mentioned in the book, Madam Commissioner, the retired IPS officer apparently points to Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, the present deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. Pawar held the post of "guardian minister" of Pune district at the time, when the state had a Congress-NCP government.
'I want to warn Ajit dada and all those who have stabbed Pawar saheb by joining hands with the BJP.' 'Don't write saheb's obituaries so soon.'
A total of 4,140 candidates were left in the fray for 288 Maharashtra assembly seats after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday, a poll official said.
Ajit Pawar, who represented the Baramati segment, remained incommunicado.
'It is everyone's desire and demand that Pawar saheb remains the NCP chief'
The Leader of Opposition in the assembly also told an interviewer that he will "100 per cent" like to be chief minister of Maharashtra.
A tough administrator and an immensely popular face in his largely rural assembly segment Baramti in Pune district, Ajit is also a maverick leader who doesn't shy from being on a different page from his party.
The poster came up on the eve of swearing-in of Sena president and the Aghadi nominee Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai.
Top government sources also said the civic polls in the state, delayed due to the OBC reservation issue being heard by the Supreme Court, are likely to be held in October after getting a clarification from the apex court.
Did the fear of central agencies probing scams involving NCP leaders that forced these politicians to jump ship?
Sustained persuasion by his family members and senior Nationalist Congress Party leaders made the NCP leader quit as deputy chief minister.
The deputy chief minister's post may go to Ajit Pawar, sources said.
As reports of political parties swiftly switching loyalties -- to quench their thirst for power -- swirl over Maharashtra, Rediff.com speaks to different players involved in the game of thrones.
Raut claimed Sharad Pawar recently told Uddhav Thackeray that his party will never join hands with the BJP.
The Sena-NCP bonhomie was also seen after Shiv Sena leaders Eknath Shinde and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's Man Friday Milind Narvekar on Saturday caught Sanjay Bansod, NCP MLA from Udgir, who was set to fly out of Mumbai.
Pawar was the deputy CM twice in the 15-year regime of Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra during 1999-2014.
Ajit Pawar said that industry had 'lost its soul' in Pran's death.
'Earlier in my career DGs were nearly 100 per cent honest.' 'By the time I retired, many DGs have not been honest.' 'One DG asking me to go and meet a home minister whom everybody knew is a corrupt guy.' '
'But the coldness between the two is definitely melting.'
Shinde was sworn-in as the chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy CM on June 30. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai at 11 am, an official said.
Fadnavis said it is made to appear the border dispute has arisen only after the Shinde-led government came to power (in June this year).
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The 10-member jury was headed by filmmaker Vipul Shah. The awards were announced by jury member Dharam Gulati.
'I feel both deserve to be honoured with Bharat Ratna. Why not? They are our national heroes who have been inspiring a generation of sportspersons and will continue to do so'
Former national hockey player and Member of Parliament Dilip Tirkey on Sunday backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's praise for Major Dhyan Chand and said the hockey wizard should be given Bharat Ratna-country's highest civilian award.
Munde, a Nationalist Congress Party leader, had attended a state cabinet meeting earlier this week and taken part in the Nationalist Congress Party's foundation day event two days ago in Mumbai.
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'If the BJP doesn't want to accept the will of the people, then we will show them what a majority means.'
'That was a morning where if I wanted to fly, I would have flown as well.'
Following are the possible contenders for the post of Maharashtra chief minister. We request our readers to take the poll at the end of this list.
In the heat and dust of a Baramati rally with Supriya Sule.
In the couple of hours that you spend in the riot-hit city you find it is not the BJP that is asking for the votes of an excited section of Hindus, but it is the people who are clinging to Narendra Modi. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reports on the sentiment on the ground in Muzaffarnagar, whose Hindu-Muslim fracture is a long way from being mended.
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