Free power and waiver of farmers' loans and reservation in jobs and education for women are among the various promises made in the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena manifesto released on Tuesday in Mumbai.
The already-strained ties between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena further dipped on the eve of the union cabinet reshuffle with the Sena representative unlikely to make an entry at the Centre.
The Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership to clear its stand on the issue of its prime ministerial candidate and demanded that a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance be convened soon. The BJP ally gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, widely expected to be the BJP's PM candidate, over the Gujarat riots.
Further hardening his stand on seat-sharing with Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said he has rejected the saffron ally's demand for contesting 135 seats in Maharashtra assembly polls and hinted at going it alone, saying "everything has an alternative".
The saffron allies are locked in an intense negotiation on seat-sharing and a consensus has eluded them till now on how many constituencies each of them will contest.
It's been over two months since the flood waters receded, and it would seem with it so has anger against either the state government or the BJP-Sena candidates, reports Archis Mohan.
"Proper procedure of law is followed in Maharashtra. Police can take action against anyone if they have evidence. The state government hasn't acted out of revenge," Raut told reporters when asked about Goswami's arrest.
Sources in the Congress and NCP said the draft CMP and allocation of portfolios between the three parties will be discussed in the meeting.
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.
NCP sources also added that the smaller parties which had allied with the Congress-NCP coalition are also on board to having a tie-up with the Shiv Sena.
The biggest shocker is in Haryana where at least three exit polls predicted decimation of the Opposition, but the BJP won 40 seats in the 90-member assembly and the Congress 31 seats.
Sanjay Raut also claimed that his party would win 100 out of the total 124 seats it had contested.
Shinde, an MLA from neighbouring Thane, was the leader of house in the previous term as well, besides being a cabinet minister in the BJP-Sena government.
Describing Fadnavis as a friend, Thackeray also said he does not view him as opposition leader.
'Even the late Balasaheb Thackeray had once stressed on the arrangement between Shiv Sena-BJP that the party having more number of elected legislators will have a claim on the post of chief minister'
There are limitations to milking national security, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
The elections for the 288-member House are due in September-October this year.
Unlike the frenzy and buzz in political circles during the last few days, the meetings on Thursday were held in a discreet manner.
The Congress and the NCP are not comfortable with the name Maha Shiv Aghadi (a grand alliance comprising the Shiv Sena)
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.
Why Aaditya Thackeray's decision to plunge into electoral politics is significant.
Thackeray also took a dig at governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari over imposition of the President's Rule in the state.
In an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Sena, which also saw a drop in its 2014 tally, said the mandate has rejected the notion that elections can be swept by engineering defections and splitting opposition parties.
"I did say 'I will come back', but forgot to give you the time-table for it. But I can assure you one thing, you need to wait for some time."
Fadnavis's resignation came a day before the expiry of the 13th Legislative Assembly of the state.
The reshuffle could take place before the start of the winter session of Parliament.
The 29-year-old next-gen Thackeray, whom his party wants to be the deputy chief minister in the BJP-Sena alliance government, won with a thumping majority from Mumbai's Worli constituency.
'We formed the government without the Shiv Sena and it will remain stable.'
The injured -- 130 -- cannot go back to work nor do they have homes to return to. Many of them refuse to leave the hospital while some of their relatives sleep in the hospital corridors. Apart from their physical injuries, the trauma of seeing their family members swept away haunts them as does the loss of all their possessions. But the BJP-Sena government remains indifferent to this human crisis.
The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's much-awaited entry into the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Republican Party of India combine to forge a grand alliance in Maharashtra won't be a reality.
The Shiv Sena attacked BJP-led government over failure to arrest the killers of communist leader Govind Pansare.
Shiv Sena executive president Udhav Thackeray said the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party would be contesting the 2009 Assembly polls in Maharashtra together.
There's no telling how long this government will last or how cordial the relations between the alliance partners will be, but it tells us that while constancy and fealty pay, timing is everything, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Chhagan Bhujbal, Jayant Patil (both from the NCP), Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut (both from the Congress), Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai (both from the Sena) took oath as ministers along with Thackeray.
"We will keep an eye on the situation in Maharashtra. Congress and NCP leaders will hold further talks on the future course of action," he added.
Vidarbha had given as many as 44 seats to the BJP in 2014. The Congress and NCP, plus independents and smaller parties, snatched 19 seats from the BJP, reports Abhishek Waghmare.
BJP Maharashtra unit president Nitin Gadkari appeared to be the target of Sena's ire with its mouthpiece Saamna describing him as the nemesis of the alliance.
'The Sena can quickly reduce most solutions to violence.' 'When in power, it will revert to this gene which is coded into it and we will no doubt produce entertaining and frightening moments,' says Aakar Patel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hosted a pre-Diwali dinner for the Council of Ministers where he stressed on keeping up the momentum of the cleanliness mission launched by him earlier this month.
There are many life lessons to be learnt from the way Sharad Pawar handled the Maharashtra political crisis.
