Shinde welcomed the former Rajasthan minister to the Shiv Sena and said Gudha left the ministerial position for the cause of people.
Both the Shiv Senas - one of Maharashtra Chief minister Eknath Shinde and the other of Uddhav Thackeray - marked their foundation day on Monday, with attack on each other.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS president Raj Thackeray have announced a joint 'morcha' (protest march) in Mumbai on July 26 to express solidarity with students protesting the NEET paper leak and alleged police atrocities.
The central government, in its typical sledgehammer style, has unleashed the might of its investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate against NCP and Shiv Sena leaders.
Bollywood actor and former Congress Lok Sabha MP Govinda on Thursday joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Mumbai.
Nationalist Citizens Party of India leader Abu Taher attended a breakfast meeting hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for NDA allies but asserted that his party is not part of the ruling alliance. He stated his attendance was solely to raise public issues directly with the Prime Minister.
The Shiv Sena has shifted its 29 members to a hotel in Mumbai, ostensibly for an orientation workshop to make them aware of the functioning of the country's richest civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
The strategic move will also bolster the BJP's push to decimate Uddhav Thakceray-led party by depriving it of its pet Hindutva and ethnic sub-nationalism plank.
The spiralling agitation over the NEET issue saw protests and counter-protests by Congress and BJP across the country on Wednesday, with clashes and tense face-offs at many places, a day after Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders were forcibly removed from a dharna outside the prime minister's residence.
'We formed the government without the Shiv Sena and it will remain stable.'
Buoyed by exit poll surveys, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday claimed that it would form governments on its own in Haryana and Maharashtra, and stressed that it would not require support of the Shiv Sena to form government in the latter.
The Shiv Sena has moved its newly elected corporators to a luxury hotel as the race to pick the next Mumbai mayor intensifies. The move comes amid political maneuvering and strategic positioning following recent civic poll results.
The BJP and Shiv Sena are leading in the early trends of the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls in Maharashtra. Counting began on Monday morning for elections to 12 Zilla Parishads and 125 Panchayat Samitis.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on Tuesday claimed the Bharatiya Jantea Party candidate Murji Patel withdrew from the Andheri East Assembly bypoll contest after realising that his defeat was imminent.
According to the final tally, the BJP won 1,425 out of a total 2,869 seats, Shiv Sena 399, Congress 324, NCP 167, Shiv Sena-UBT 155, NCP-SP 36, MNS 13, BSP 6, parties registered with the SEC 129, unrecognised parties 196, and 19 independents.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has alleged that the BJP's "real and ultimate target" in seeking a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha is to amend the Constitution to end reservation, rather than genuinely implement women's reservation.
The Shiv Sena on Monday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party by claiming that those who are crying hoarse over the grave of Yakub Memon, executed for his role in the 1993 serial blasts, were "hiding in burrows" during the Mumbai riots.
Even though MLAs are required to show their ballot to respective party whips before casting their vote, all parties have ensured their MLAs are housed in five star hotels closer to the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha where voting will take place on June 10.
As the rebellion by senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde plunged the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra in a political crisis, an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana on Thursday said the renegade legislators should "mend their ways in time".
The decision comes at a time when Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is holding the executive meeting of Shiv Sena.
BJP candidate Arun Lakhani, contesting the Maharashtra legislative council elections, addresses the unique situation of his son's marriage to Supriya Sule's daughter, emphasising the separation of politics and family ties.
'Both the parties stood by the BJP through thick and thin, while others joined when they smelt power. The Shiv Sena was forced to quit the NDA last year while the Shiromani Akali Dal quit over farm bills'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers and leaders of the National Democratic Alliance allies on Tuesday attended the ruling coalition's weekly meeting of parliamentarians, where the absence of three Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) MPs stood out amid signs of differences within the 20-member group of Trinamool Congress rebels over its association with the alliance.
He had resigned from his post as a deputy leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Khotkar told reporters in Jalna.
Following a hung result in the Chandrapur Municipal Corporation elections, both the Congress and BJP are claiming they will secure the Mayor's position. Congress emerged as the single largest party, but the BJP claims to have support from Congress corporators.
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.
In a riposte to former Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari's recent overtures to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, the Shiv Sena on Friday decided to field its candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections.
Hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party gave it an ultimatum to take a final call on the seat-sharing pact for the Maharashtra assembly elections, Shiv Sena said on Thursday night that it would not be dictated by anybody.
Elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and 28 other civic bodies in the state were held on January 15.
The Congress party has announced its support for Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
Civic polls in Mumbai are to take place in late March or early April.
On instructions from the central leadership, Maharashtra BJP leaders have retreated behind a veil of silence, the senior leader said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has entered into post-poll alliances with rivals Congress and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in some municipal councils in Maharashtra, even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday rejected the tie-ups and warned of action against party leaders involved.
This is the third time in two days that Singhal, the Assam Housing and Urban Affairs Minister, has met the dissidents.
With most exit polls projecting Bharatiya Janata Party's emergence as the single-largest party in Maharashtra but falling short of a majority, the Shiv Sena hinted at a possible reconciliation with its former saffron ally, saying there should be "no bitterness any more".
Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata P president Sudhir Mungantiwar said on Wednesday that the 25-year-old alliance with Shiv Sena would not be snapped although Bal Thackeray's party had extended support to Pranab Mukherjee for presidential polls.
Reiterating the Shiv Sena's demand for sharing the chief minister's post, Raut said the state's CM will be from the Uddhav Thackeray-led party only.
'This is only a passing phase and the Sena would rise again like a phoenix'
"Farmers' organisations in western UP have expressed their willingness to support the Shiv Sena and we may ally with smaller parties. In Goa, efforts are on to explore a formula like MVA. Let's see if we succeed," Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.
'For the Shiv Sena, Hindutva is like a shawl which can be put on and discarded at will.'
