The ceremony was organised in a sprawling 306-acre ground in Kharghar area on Sunday morning, which was attended by several lakh people, most of them followers of Dharmadhikari who was conferred with Maharashtra's top civilian award by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Celebs in attendance on Day Four of Lakme Fashion Week.
Neither side has called off the oldest political alliance in the country, but if a Shiv Sena poster, published by Economic Times on Tuesday, is any indication, then the Bharatiya Janata Party has been condemned to eternal damnation.
It was a special-purpose mobile gantry crane used in bridge construction and to install precast box girders in highway construction projects.
Soon after the suspension of 33 opposition Lok Sabha MPs, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said all democratic norms have been thrown into the dustbin by this "autocratic" government and it has shown zero accountability towards Parliament.
"Gandhi's disqualification is illegal and the case is also bogus. I am sure that a higher court in Gujarat will do justice to Gandhi," said Raut, whose party is an ally of the Congress in Maharashtra.
BJP sources said a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance is expected to take place soon to highlight its growing strength and to dispel the impression that the departure of some of its oldest allies such as the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal and the Janata Dal-United have the left the saffron party without a major partner.
Fadnavis is the local remote control, but the ultimate remote control is in the hands of the BJP leadership in Delhi, observe Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
"When he was state BJP chief, all was well. There is nothing earth-shaking in the comment. Those who want to come with us can join and become future colleagues. Don't read too much into this," Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said.
The five-state assembly elections are seen as a now-or-never, no-holds battle for the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah should tell from where do Kuki militants get rifles and ammunition, it said.
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.
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.
Asked about some Shiv Sena MLAs issuing verbal threats, Rane said, "I wonder whether they had ever killed a mouse."
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the suggestion of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena to decide the disqualification proceedings pending against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and MLAs belonging to his camp, saying it cannot assume the role of the speaker as doing so will have "serious ramifications".
Several opposition MPs on Wednesday demanded an explanation from Home Minister Amit Shah after two visitors jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors' gallery and opened canisters that emitted coloured smoke, triggering panic among the members.
Shinde dismissed his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray's call for mid-term elections.
As Maharashtra and Haryana show, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah completely control the BJP and are taking it to the next level ruthlessly, without carrying forward any past baggage.
'The Maharashtra government is not being very clear; they are keeping quiet.'
The inexperienced Uddhav is forced to match up against 24x7 political pros Amit Shah and Narendra Modi who have the added advantage of wielding power at the Centre, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
Raut said that he did not need anyone's 'permission' regarding the issue.
Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday agreed to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra chief minister after a last-minute call from BJP President Amit Shah inviting him to the event.
The remarks by the BJP leaders came as 17 opposition parties resolved to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the saffron party and work with flexibility by setting aside their differences. They dubbed the planned alliance as "unholy and opportunistic".
If Nitish is as shrewd a practitioner of realpolitik as he is billed to be, we'd like to see if he can do the unthinkable -- break up the BJP legislature party in Bihar.
Leaders of 38 parties have confirmed their participation in a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to be held in the national capital on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda said.
Sources said the BJP is expecting Sena rebels, who include 39 MLAs and have been joined by at least 10 independents in a Guwahati hotel, to make the first move by approaching Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai, a confidant of Uddhav Thackeray, said the party is now looking to implement the 50:50 formula with its ally the BJP.
The BMC election will hold the key to a new shift in political power -- not just in Mumbai but in Maharashtra, reports Sarthak Choudhury.
'...a more capable State -- one that operates with greater capacity, greater efficiency, and greater clarity of purpose.' 'But I also see a more despotic State -- one that places more constraints on speech, assembly, dissent, and critique.' 'It may run 'better', but on the regime's rules.'
After receiving the PM, Thackeray left for Mumbai, state government officials said.
Opposition leaders on Saturday stepped up pressure on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for stringent action against Bharatiya Janata Party's Ramesh Bidhuri over his derogatory remarks against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali in the House.
Currently, CM Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis are the only members of the cabinet.
Karnataka and Maharashtra have bickered over a disputed border for more than half a century.
Ahead of Cabinet formation, Narendra Modi, prime minister designate on Monday held discussions with his close aide Amit Shah and senior party leader Arun Jaitley even as newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party members of Parliament met senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionaries at the Sangh office.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the home ministry's protection largesse.
'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.'
Thackeray is scheduled to hold consultations with the finance and other state departments on Monday and discussion will also take place in the cabinet meeting later this week.
Barely days after imposing a 40 per cent export tax on onions to cool down soaring prices, which, in turn, triggered widespread protests across the main growing belts, the Centre on Tuesday sought to mitigate both political and economic tensions gripping parts of Maharashtra. It decided to procure an additional 200,000 tonnes of onions at Rs 2,410 per quintal for its buffer stock from farmers, a rate that is strikingly close to the price at which they were being exported before the 40 per cent duty was levied on August 19. The export price before the imposition of the duty stood at around $320 per tonne free on board (approximately Rs 2,650 per quintal).
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, whose Bharatiya Janata Party-backed government is facing attacks and legal challenges from a faction led by Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, has said that 'they are not doing anything illegal' and have followed all constitutional steps for the formation of new government in the state.
Despite being given the post of a Union minister, Rane has been behaving like a "roadside gangster", Shiv Sena's mouthpiece Saamana said in an editorial.
