Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated and laid foundation stones of development projects worth more than Rs 38,000 crore in different sectors in Mumbai, giving a big push to infrastructure, urban travel and healthcare ahead of civic polls in the city in which the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction will seek to showcase these ventures to take on their political rivals.
Shiv Sena nominee Hemangi Worlikar romped home as the deputy Mayor of BMC.
The BMC polls will be held on February 21, and results will be announced on February 23.
'Not just 12 MPs, but 22 former Shiv Sena MLAs as well as four MLAs who are still in Uddhav Thackeray's camp will be switching to our side gradually.'
From attacking Pramod Mahajan and Smriti Irani and participating in Bigg Boss, Sanjay Nirupam has plunged into an ugly controversy with his latest remark.
The counting of votes is underway in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, where estranged saffron allies, BJP and the Shiv Sena are locked in a battle.
Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com reports from Shivaji Park and the MMRDA ground to sense the mood of Shiv Sena workers -- from the Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde camps.
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.
'If they think they can silence us by suspending us, then they don't know what BJP MLAs are made of.'
She wrote this in reply to an article about the proceedings of Bombay high court during the hearing of the stay order plea by the actor's lawyer against the demolition drive of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation at her property.
Earlier Uddhav had to manage only seniors in the party. Now, he has to manage the leadership of two other parties who have been political adversaries in the past. Aditi Phadnis notes.
The Sena has 104 corporators in the country's richest civic body, with a budget of around Rs 12,000 crore.
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday accused Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party of forging an alliance for the February 16 polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation with the sole purpose of filling their pockets with taxpayers' money. "These parties (Congress and NCP) have stooped so low that they are attacking each other in their election campaigns for Zilla Parishad polls. They have joined hands to contest the Mumbai civic poll," he said.
Five workers of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena were arrested on Thursday for allegedly assaulting a north-Indian fruit seller in suburban Ghatkopar after a video of the incident went viral on social media.
'When Uddhav Thackeray went in for surgery, he had presumed that Eknath Shinde would have looked after the Shiv Sena for him during this period.' 'He did not imagine that Shinde would use this period to backstab him.'
The RTI also revealed that 18 other Maharashtra ministers are on the list of defaulters.
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.
'The BJP's real pain lies in the fact that all their skullduggery and chicanery has failed to cow down the Shiv Sena. They just cannot digest this fact.'
Not only Mumbai, Pune and Thane, but several cities and towns in Maharashtra, including Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, have been witnessing spike in cases. Lockdown or restrictions have been imposed in several cities or districts in the state in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan appointed Subodh Kumar, a 1977 batch IAS officer, as the commissioner of India's richest civic body - the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Kumar replaces Swadhin Kshtriya who has been appointed as the revenue secretary.
Sachin Tendulkar and his wife Anjali voted in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections at Bandra.
The BJP is set to make decisive gains in civic elections in Maharashtra even as it is locked in a neck-and-neck fight with its bickering ally Shiv Sena in Mumbai.
An editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said it was never decided that the grand temple will be constructed through public donations, and political campaigning in the name of Lord Ram has to be stopped at some point of time.
About 56 per cent was the overall turnout for 10 municipal corporations across Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said it was unfortunate that the BJP was 'playing politics' over the issue rather than solving it.
'Getting Brijbhushan to rake up Thackeray's anti-north Indian stand is the BJP's way of cutting Raj Thackeray to size.' 'Could just one MP have stopped Raj Thackeray's Ayodhya tour?'
As Mumbai almost came to a halt after overnight rains, netizens and Mumbaikars took a dig at the Shiv Sena for the plight of their beloved city.
The Shiv Sena and the NCP suspect that either of them may walk into the waiting arms of the BJP. The Congress feels that the Sena and the NCP may eventually team up and marginalise it, reports Dhaval Kulkarni
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Phadnavis on Sunday faced flak for "brokering the deal" with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena instead of enforcing law and order, amid the row around the release of Karan Johar's "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil".
'If they call themselves a Hindutva party, then they must sever the alliance with the PDP in Kashmir.'
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.
The Sena also said the BJP leaders are creating sounds of empty vessels over the issue of who will become the Mumbai mayor.
Shobhaa De's remarks are an insult to Maharashtra, Marathi language and culture, said Sena's Sanjay Raut.
Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been in the news for its aggressive stance against 'outsiders,' who the MNS says, deny employment opportunities to Maharashtrians. "We are not opposed to other communities, this is a wrong perception about us," MNS leader Nitin Sardesai insists in an exclusive interview with Rediff.com
Prasanna D Zore appeals to the Shiv Sena 11 -- the MPs at the heart of the current national controversy -- to forget rotis and poor service at Maharashtra Sadan and instead deliver millions of Mumbaikars from their daily travel troubles.
Two more Metro lines cleared ahead of BMC polls
Sharma allegedly dumped the debris near mangroves behind his bungalow in suburban Versova and also undertook illegal construction near it
The BJP believes that the only party still capable of leading a credible challenge against it is the Congress. Please note how BJP campaigners in states where the Congress may count for a cipher or thereabouts, mostly attack the Congress, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'Who else will solve these issues if not the chief minister?' 'Who else shall we take our complaints to?'
First look on Bal Thackeray at a BMC election rally.
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