After an acrimonious split, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena are together again with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday announcing that Sena will be joining his government on Friday 'in keeping with the mandate' and will get 12 ministerial berths but there will be no deputy CM.
The exit polls have predicted the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance getting elected in Maharashtra but have differed in their projection of a number of seats.
We want to make a non-BJP political front in this country, Raut said.
A pre-poll survey on Thursday projected Naredra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party sweeping Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka and the party-led National Democratic Alliance giving a big jolt to ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections.
Mungantiwar expressed confidence that the formation of a new government will take place soon.
With the BJP backing off from the race, the onus to form government now rests with the Sena, which has indicated that it might rope in the Congress and the NCP to prop up a government.
Riding on the Narendra Modi wave, the Bharatiya Janata Party has crossed the century mark in the state assembly polls in Maharashtra, a feat achieved last by the Congress party in 1990.
The poll of polls brought out by the NDA gave the BJP and the Congress 66 and 14 seats respectively in Haryana, and 211 and 64 for the saffron alliance and the Congress-NCP in Maharashtra.
Fadnavis, the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister of the state, filed his papers from the Nagpur South-West constituency.
'No political party can antagonise Ambedkarite voters, particularly the neo-Buddhists.'
Raut also highlighted that the party had goodwill toward the opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said he had proposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership to make Eknath Shinde, who had rebelled against the Shiv Sena leadership, the new chief minister after the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government last week.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
Three MLAs abstained, while 20 legislators, most of them from Congress and the NCP, including Congress's Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar, both former ministers, were absent during the trust vote.
Maharashtra and Haryana voted in assembly elections on Monday. Several prominent personalities also exercised their franchise.
'Neither did I approach the BJP nor did they ask me to join them. It was a natural choice for both of us to make.' 'It was never for me to ask or for them to give.'
Uddhav Thackeray and his followers have the option to stop riding a tiger and commence work around a more meaningful and enduring political ideology. It is an option Eknath Shinde's side may not have, supported as they were by the BJP, to maintain continuity of the old Sena, argues Shyam G Menon.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday termed as "unfortunate" Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's decision to boycott Prime Minister Narendra Modi's programme in Nagpur and said Congress should introspect why people are "unhappy" with the state leadership.
'The people who were assigned the role to look after the affairs of the Congress in Maharashtra have failed.'
The two parties have agreed to contest 26 and 22 seats respectively.
As its own national worth augments the BJP might decide to be more cautious with its local allies.
'They want to win 45 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra in the 2024 general elections and joining hands with Ajit Pawar is in that direction.'
"If we had the numbers, we wouldn't have waited for anyone. The Congress and the NCP didn't cross the 100 mark...we will work as a responsible opposition," Pawar said.
By ending the Shiv Sena's political untouchability, the Congress is creating a level playing ground for itself in the political battle of Hindu identity, explains Sheela Bhatt.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious projects such as the Clean India campaign and the MP Model Village scheme will be taken up during the high tea for National Democratic Alliance MPs on Sunday evening with a view to seek their support and participation for its success.
The rebel legislators have been maintaining that they were forced to go against Thackeray as he kept ignoring their plea to snap ties with the MVA allies despite being told that these constituents were trying to 'finish off' the Sena.
With organisations like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is a front of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, telling Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman they want OPS back, the government is in a bind, report Shiva Rajora and Aditi Phadnis.
Mamata asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on seat-sharing in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
BJP president Amit Shah's influence in the Narendra Modi cabinet revamp was evident from the inclusion of Jagat Prakash Nadda, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
Asserting that his government is stable, Thackeray said the alliance partners are perceived to be ideologically different but the interests of the state and welfare of people binds the three parties together.
Thackeray held talks with Thorat, former state chief minister Ashok Chavan and senior Congress leader Manikrao Thakare at a suburban hotel.
Marking a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party, its senior leader Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government as deputy chief minister on Sunday.
Former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari on Monday met Raj Thackeray in Mumbai, triggering speculation that the saffron party is trying to win over the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief into the National Democratic Alliance for the upcoming elections even as he said there is no reason for Shiv Sena to be annoyed by his meeting with Raj.
Sena chief has now put ball in BJP's court indicating that Shiv Sena's tiger is back to roar. Sanjay Jog reports
It was not a one-way ride up though for the man who now could potentially become the BJP's national president over time.
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.
'When I felt that the party is drifting away from Hindutva, I tried to speak to Uddhavji. But nobody was ready to listen.'
Shiv Sena, a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, on Monday defended Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's "Hindu nationalist" remark, saying the Janata Dal-United's decision to snap ties with the party was "wrong".
