Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had dissuaded Gopinath Munde from joining the Congress when the sulking Bharatiya Janata Party leader was planning a switch as he felt neglected, according to Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.
The BJP on Friday said its alliance with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra has been finalised with both parties having reached an understanding in the seat-sharing arrangements.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hinted at "welcoming" former external affairs minister Natwar Singh into its fold after he quit the Congress.
Maharashtra's Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council and senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde refuted reports of an alliance of the Shiv Sena-BJP and the Republican Party of India (Athawale) with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Maharashtra BJP chief and former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde asked reporters not to read too much into Thackeray's absence at Tuesday night's Sena-BJP dinner meeting.
Referring to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde's statement that coal block allocation scam would be soon forgotten, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde said that one day people could also forget Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The Sena agreed to allow the BJP to contest the bypoll in Chimur.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com recalls his encounters with the late Gopinath Munde many years ago, when he was Maharashtra's home minister.
The Congress is acting against its own candidate in Amravati and President's son Raosaheb Shekhawat, Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Gopinath Munde said on Monday.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Monday said estranged Thackeray cousins - Uddhav and Raj - should come together to strengthen the Opposition in Maharashtra.
It has said that the Sena has entered into a deal with the Congress over support to UPA-Left Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil.
The Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced that they have reached a seat-sharing agreement for the October 13 Maharashtra assembly elections.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party said on Tuesday it will not vote on the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha without a discussion on it.
In a pre-poll setback to the Nationalist Congress Party, its leader and former Maharashtra minister Daulatrao Aher has quit the party and rejoined BJP.
Gopinath Munde's decision to resign from his post at the Bharatiya Janata Party and to be just an ordinary party worker came as a major shock to the party's central leadership. The former Maharashtra deputy chief minister said that the party was removed from the problems of the common man and said he would embark on a yatra to meet the people.
Opposing government's decision to allow foreign direct investment in the retail sector, deputy leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde on Sunday said that they would not allow proceedings to take place in the Parliament on Monday.
The BJP on Friday named Gopinath Munde as its candidate for the post of Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly.
Three sitting BJP MPs figured in the third list of candidates, consisting of 35 names, for the Rajasthan Assembly elections declared today.
She parried a question on why she had been inducted in the BJP ahead of Rahul, saying, "My entry into politics was not accidental."
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it will support the government in passing the anti-rape Bill by voting in its favour.
The BJP is ready for a snap poll anytime and is sure the UPA will not remain in office till 2009 in view of widening differences with the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear.
Hardening its stand against the Shiv Sena leadership, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that negotiations on seat-sharing for the coming Lok Sabha elections could not begin unless statements made by a Sena leader that his party would back Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar for the prime ministerial post are publicly retracted by senior Sena leaders.
A separate ministry for welfare of nomadic tribes, 15 per cent quota in jobs and educational institutions for economically backward classes and stabilising prices have been promised in the manifesto of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance for the October 13 Maharashtra assembly elections.
Hours after the Nationalist Congress Party rubbished rumours of making a pact with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the saffron party on Wednesday also ruled out the possibility of taking support from the Sharad Pawar-led outfit.
With NCP president Sharad Pawar's meeting with Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray triggering speculation about a possible realignment of forces in Maharashtra, the BJP has that said the event will not disturb its existing alliance with the Sena nor would the tie-up expand to include a third party.
Describing the unrest among party members as just the "tip of the iceberg," the report shed light on the underlying discontent within the BJP.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Friday said he was not aware of any talks about forming an alliance with main opposition parties, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bharatiya Janata Party members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G spectrum issue on Thursday boycotted the meeting of the panel in protest against Chairman P C Chacko's refusal to accede to their demand to summon the prime minister and the finance minister.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Gopinath Munde, on Friday spared no chance to get even with his junior colleague Shahnawaz Husain even as he took full control of the question and answers session with the media when the two leaders shared the dais to read out the party's political resolution.
Anger against peoples' representatives was in full display at the Ramlila Maidan on Friday when Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Gopinath Munde and Ananth Kumar had to abruptly leave the ground after being greeted with cries of chor chor from the crowd.
Pankaja Munde -- who lit the funeral pyre of her father Gopinath Munde on Wednesday at his ancestral village of Parli in Maharasthra along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party general secretary Amit Shah -- will lead the the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign for the assembly elections scheduled for later this year.
After targeting Union Minister Smriti Irani on her educational qualifications, the Congress has questioned Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde on the same count, alleging that he "graduated in 1976 from a college established in 1978".
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Friday slammed Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for presenting a 'lacklustre, populist budget with an eye on forthcoming elections in West Bengal'.
With the Election Commission slapping a showcause notice on him for his poll expense remark, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Wednesday sought four more weeks' time along with reports of returning officer on expenditure incurred by him during 2009 parliamentary poll.
Pankaja, daughter of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, said the allegations were part of a plan to defame her.
The first sitting of the 16th Lok Sabha on Wednesday will be adjourned for the day after paying tributes to Union minister Gopinath Munde who died in a road mishap on Tuesday.
The combined Opposition's call for a Bharat Bandh on Monday has brought most of the country to a near standstill. Rediff.com correspondents report from across the country
'The BJP alliance needs to handle the Maratha quota issue skilfully and address its root cause, which is agrarian distress. Then there is stalled industrialisation. If these issues are addressed, caste fault lines would wither away. But, this is next to impossible in a short span of three-four months.'
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